but two Objections should Malice it self go to work The one is That I moved His Majesty to command the Change And the other That now when I saw my self challeng'd for it I procured His Majesty's Hand for my security To these I Answer clearly First That I did not move the King directly or indirectly to make this Change And Secondly That I had His Majesty's Hand to the Book not now but then and before ever I caused them to be Printed as now they are And that both these are true I here again freely offer my self to my Oath And yet Fourthly That you may see His Gracious Majesty used not his Power only in commanding this Change but his Wisdom also I shall adventure to give you my Reasons such as they are why this Alteration was most fit if not necessary My first Reason is In the Litany in Henry VIII his time and also under Edward VI. there was this Clause From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities from all false Doctrine c. Good Lord deliver us But in the Litany in Queen Elizabeth's time this Clause about the Pope was left out and it seems of purpose for avoiding of Scandal And yet the Prelates for that not accounted Innovators or Introducers of Popery Now 't is a far greater Scandal to call their Religion Rebellion than 't is to call thir chief Bishop Tyrant And this Reason is drawn from Scandal which must ever be avoided as much as it may My second Reason is That the Learned make but Three Religions to have been of old in the World Paganisns Judaism and Christianity And now they have added a Fourth which is Turcism and is an absurd mixture of the other Three Now if this ground of theirs be true as 't is generally received perhaps it will be of dangerous Consequence sadly to avow that the 〈◊〉 Religion is 〈◊〉 That some Opinions of theirs teach Rebellion that 's apparently true the other would be thought on to say no more And this Reason well weighed is taken from the very Foundations of Religion it self My third Reason is Because if you make their Religion to be Rebellion then you make their Religion and Rebellion to be all one And that is against the ground both of State and the Law For when divers Romish Priests and Jesaits have deservedly suffered Death for Treason is it not the constant and just Profession of the State that they never put any Man to Death for Religion but for Rebellion and Treason only Doth not the State truly affirm That there was never any Law made against the Life of a Papist quatenus a Papist only And is not all this stark false if their very Religion be Rebellion For if their Religion be Rebellion it is not only false but impossible that the same Man in the same Act should suffer for his Rebellion and not for his Religion And this King James of ever blessed Memory understood passing well when in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs he saith I do constantly 〈◊〉 that no Papist either in my time or in the time of the late 〈◊〉 ever died for his Conscience Therefore he did not think their very Religion was Rebellion Though this Clause passed through Inadvertency in his time And this Reason is grounded both upon the Practice and the Justice of the Law Which of these Reasons or whether any other better were in His Majesty's Thoughts when he commanded the Alteration of this Clause I know not But I took it my Duty to lay it before you that the King had not only Power but Reason to command it 10. The Tenth Innovation is That the Prayer for the Navy is 〈◊〉 out of the late Book for the Fast. To this I say There is great Reason it should For the King had no declared Enemy then nor God be thanked hath he now 〈◊〉 had he then any Navy at Sea For almost all the Ships were come in before the Fast-Book was set out But howsoever an excellent Consequence it is if you mark it The Prayer for the Navy was left out of the Book for the Fast therefore by that and such like Innovations the Prelates intend to bring in Popery Indeed if that were a piece of the Prelates Plots to bring in Popery from beyond Sea then they were mightily overseen that they left out the Prayer for the Navy But else what Reason or Consequence is in it I know not unless perhaps Mr. Burton intended to befriend Dr. Bastwick and in the Navy bring hither the Whore of Babylon to be ready for his Christening as he most prophanely Scoffs Well I pray GOD the time come not upon this Kingdom in which it will be found that no one thing hath advanced or ushered in Popery so fast as the gross Absurdities even in the Worship of God which these Men and their like maintain both in Opinion and Practice 11. The Eleventh Innovation is The Reading of the Second Service at the Communion-Table or the Altar To this First I can truly say That since my own Memory this was in use in very many Places as being most proper for those Prayers are then read which both precede and follow the Communion and by little and little this antient Custom was altered and in those Places first where the Emissaries of this Faction came to Preach And now if any in Authority offer to reduce it this antient Course of the Church is by and by called an Innovation Secondly With this the Rubricks of the Common-Prayer Book agree For the first Rubrick after the Communion tells us that upon Holy-Days though there be no Communion yet all else that 's appointed at the Communion shall be read Shall be read That 's true but where Why the last 〈◊〉 before the Communion tells us That the Priest standing at the North-side of the Holy Table shall say the Lord's Prayer with that which follows So that not only the Communion but the Prayers which accompany the Communion which are commonly called the Second Service are to be read at the Communion Table Therefore if this be an Innovation 't is made by the Rubrick not by the Prelates And Mr. Burton's Scoff that this Second Service must be served in for Dainties savours too much of Belly and Prophanation 12. One think sticks much in their Stomachs and they call it an Innovation too And that is Bowing or doing Reverence at our first coming into the Church or at our nearer Approaches to the Holy Table or the Altar call it whether you will in which they will needs have it That we Worship the Holy Table or God knows what To this I Answer First That God forbid we should Worship any thing but GOD Himself Secondly That if to Worship GOD when we enter into his House or approach his Altar be an Innovation 't is a very old one For Moses did Reverence at the very Door of the
be quieted by this Assurance that neither the Law nor their Liberty as Subjects is thereby infringed And for Physick the Profession is honourable and safe and I know the Professors of it will remember that Corpus Humanum Man's Body is that about which their Art is conversant not Corpus Ecclesiasticum or Politicum the Body of the Church State or Commonwealth Bastwick only hath been bold that way But the Proverb in the Gospel in the Fourth of St. Luke is all I 'll say to him Medice cura teipsum Physician heal thy self And yet let me tell Your Majesty I believe he hath gained more by making the Church a Patient than by all the Patients he ever had beside Sir both my self and my Brethren have been very coursely used by the Tongues and Pens of these Men yet shall I never give Your Majesty any sow'r Counsel I shall rather manifie Your Clemency that proceeded with these Offenders in a Court of Mercy as well as Justice Since as the Reverend Judges then declared You might have justly called the Offenders into another Court and put them to it in a way that might have exacted their Lives for their stirring as much as in them lay of Mutiny and Sedition Yet this I shall be bold to say and Your Majesty may consider of it in Your Wisdom That one way of Government is not always either fit or safe when the Humours of the People are in a continual Change Especially when such Men as these shall work upon Your People and labour to infuse into them such malignant Principles to introduce a Parity in the Church or Commonwealth Et si non satis sua sponte insaniant instigare And to spur on such among them as are too sharply set already And by this means make and prepare all Advantages for the Roman Party to scorn Vs and pervert Them I pray God bless Your Majesty Your Royal Consort and Your hopeful Posterity that You may Live in Happiness Govern with Wisdom Support Your People by Justice Relieve them by Mercy Defend them by Power and Success And Guide them in the true Religion by Your Laws and most Religious Example all the long and lasting Days of Your Life Which are and shall be the daily Prayers of Your Sacred Majesty's most Loyal Subject and Most Dutiful Servant as most bound W. Cant. Arch-Bishop LAVD's SPEECH AT THE CENSURE OF J. Bastwick H. Burton and W. Prinn My LORDS I Shall not need to speak of the infamous Course of Libelling in any kind Nor of the Punishment of it which in some Cases was Capital by the Imperial Laws as appears Cod. l. 9. T. 36. Nor how patiently some great Men very great Men indeed have born Animo civili that 's Sueton. his word laceratam existimationem The tearing and rending of their Credit and Reputation with a gentle nay a generous Mind But of all Libels they are most odius which pretend Religion As if that of all things did desire to be defended by a Mouth that is like an open Sepulchre or by a Pen that is made of a sick and a loathsom Quill There were Times when Persecutions were great in the Church even to exceed Barbarity it self Did any Martyr or Confessor in those Times Libel the Governours Surely no not one of them to my best Remembrance yet these complain of Persecution without all shew of cause and in the mean time Libel and Rail without all measure So little of kin are they to those which suffer for Christ or the least part of Christian Religion My Lords It is not every Man's Spirit to hold up against the Venome which Libellers spit For S. Ambrose who was a stout and a worthy Prelate tells us not that himself but that a far greater Man than he that 's King David had found out so it seems in his Judgment 't was no matter of ordinary Ability Grande inventum a great and mighty Invention how to swallow and put off those bitter Contumilies of the Tongue And those of the Pen are no whit less and spread farther And it was a great one indeed and well beseemed the greatness of David But I think it will be far better for me to look upward and practise it than to look downward and discourse upon it In the mean time I shall remember what an Antient under the name of S. Hierom tells me * Indignum est praeposterum 'T is unworthy in it self and preposterous in demeanour for a Man to be ashamed for doing good because other Men glory in speaking ill And I can say it clearly and truly as in the presence of God I have done nothing as a Prelate to the uttermost of what I am conscious but with a single Heart and with a sincere Intention for the good Government and Honour of the Church and the maintenance of the Orthodox Truth and Religion of Christ professed established and maintained in this Church of England For my Care of this Church the reducing of it into Order the upholding of the external Worship of God in it and the setling of it to the Rules of its first Reformation are the Causes and the sole Causes whatever are pretended of all this malicious Storm which hath lowred so black upon me and some of my Brethren And in the mean time they which are the only or the chief Innovators of the Christian World having nothing say accuse us of Innovation They themselves and their Complices in the mean time being the greatest Innovators that the Christian World hath almost ever known I deny not but others have spread more dangerous Errors in the Church of Christ but no Men in any Age of it have been more guilty of Innovation then they while themselves cry out against it Quis tulerit Gracchos And I said well Quis tulerit Gracchos For 't is most apparent to any Man that will not wink that the Intention of these Men and their Abettors was and is to raise a Sedition being as great Incendiaries in the State where they get Power as they have ever been in the Church Novatian himself hardly greater Our main Crime is would they all speak out as some of them do that we are Bishops were we not so some of us might be as passable as other Men. And a great trouble 't is to them that we maintain that our Calling of Bishops is Jure Divino by Divine Right Of this I have said enough and in this place in Leighton's Case nor will I repeat Only this I will say and abide by it that the Calling of Bishops is Jure Divino by Divine Right tho' not all Adjuncts to their Calling And this I say in as direct opposition to the Church of Rome as to the Puritan Humour And I say farther that from the Apostles times in all Ages in all Places the Church of Christ was governed by Bishops And Lay-Elders never heard of till Calvin's new-fangled Device at Geneva Now this
is made by these Men as if it were Contra Regem against the King in Right or in Power But that 's a meer ignorant shift for our being Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right takes nothing from the King 's Right or Power over us For though our Office be from God and Christ immediately yet may we not exercise that Power either of Order or Jurisdiction but as God hath appointed us that is not in His Majesty's or any Christian King's Kingdoms but by and under the Power of the King given us so to do And were this a good Argument against us as Bishops it must needs be good against Priests and Ministers too for themselves grant that their Calling is Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet I hope they will not say that to be Priests and Ministers is against the King or any his Royal Prerogatives Next Suppose our Callings as Bishops could not be made good Jure Divino by Divine Right yet Jure Ecclesiastico by Ecclesiastical Right it cannot be denied And here in England the Bishops are confirmed both in their Power and Means by Act of Parliament So that here we stand in as good Case as the present Laws of the Realm can make us And so we must stand till the Laws shall be repealed by the same Power that made them Now then suppose we had no other string to hold by I say suppose this but I grant it not yet no Man can Libel against our Calling as these Men do be it in Pulpit Print or otherwise but he Libels against the King and the State by whose Laws we are established Therefore all these Libels so far forth as they are against our Calling are against the King and the Law and can have no other purpose than to stir up Sedition among the People If these Men had any other Intention or if they had any Christian or charitable desire to reform any thing amiss why did they not modestly Petition his Majesty about it that in his Princely Wisdom he might set all things right in a Just and Orderly manner But this was neither their Intention nor Way For one clamours out of his Pulpit and all of them from the Press and in a most virulent and unchristian manner set themselves to make a Heat among the People and so by Mutiny to effect that which by Law they cannot and by most false and unjust Calumnies to defame both our Callings and Persons But for my Part as I pity their Rage so I heartily pray God to forgive their Malice No Nation hath ever appeared more jealous of Religion than the People of England have ever been And their Zeal to God's Glory hath been and at this day is a great honour to them But this Zeal of theirs hath not been at all times and in all Persons alike guided by knowledge Now Zeal as it is of excellent use where it sees its way so it is very dangerous company where it goes on in the dark And these Men knowing the Disposition of the People have laboured nothing more than to misinform their knowledge and misguide their Zeal and so to fire that into a Sedition in hope that they whom they causlesly hate might miscarry in it For the main scope of these Libels is to kindle a Jealousie in Mens Minds that there are some great Plots in Hand dangerous Plots so says Mr. Burton expresly to change the Orthodox Religion established in England and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition in the room of it As if the external decent worship of God could not be upheld in this Kingdom without bringing in of Popery Now by this Art of theirs give me leave to tell you that the King is most desperately abused and wounded in the Minds of his People and the Prelates shamefully The King most desparately For there is not a more cunning trick in the World to withdraw the Peoples Hearts from their Sovereign than to persuade them that he is changing true Religion and about to bring in gross Superstition upon them Aud the Prelates shamefully For they are charged to seduce and lay the Plot and be the Instruments For his Majesty first This I know and upon this occasion take it my Duty to speak There is no Prince in Christendom more sincere in his Religion nor more constant to it than the King And he gave such a Testimony of this at his being in Spain as I much doubt whether the best of that Faction durst have done half so much as his Majesty did in the Face of that Kingdom And this you my Lord the Earl of Holland and other Persons of Honour were Eye and Ear Witnesses of having the happiness to attend Him there And at this day as his Majesty by God's great Blessing both on him and us knows more so is he more settled and more confirmed both in the Truth of the Religion here established and in Resolution to maintain it And for the Prelates I assure my self they cannot be so base as to live Prelates in the Church of England and labour to bring in the Superstitions of the Church of Rome upon themselves and it And if any should be so foul I do not only leave him to God's Judgment but if these Libellers or any other can disdover that his base and irreligious falshood to shame also and severe Punishment from the State And in any just way no Man's Hand shall be more or sooner against him than mine shall be And for my self to pass by all the scandalous reproacbes which they have most injuriously cast upon me I shall say this only First I know of no Plot nor purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly I have ever been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And to these two I here offer my Oath Thirdly If the King had a mind to change Religion which I know he hath not and God forbid he should ever have he must seek for other Instruments For as basely as these Men conceive of me yet I thank God I know my Duty well both to God and the King And I know that all the Duty I owe to the King is under God And my great happiness it is though not mine alone but your Lordships and all his Subjects with me that we live under a Gracious and a Religious King that will ever give us leave to serve God first and Him next But were the days otherwise I thank Christ for it I yet know not how to serve any Man against the Truth of God and I hope I shall never learn it But to return to the business what is their Art to make the World believe a change of Religion is endeavoured What Why forsooth they say there are great Innovations brought in by the Prelates and such as tend to the advancing of Popery Now that the Vanity and Falshood of this may appear I shall humbly
Arts or Bachelour of Law or 〈◊〉 whom they shall meet or be in presence with And that you proceed to the punishment of all such as fail in this kind And 〈◊〉 I pray acquaint Dr. Prideaux and Dr. 〈◊〉 that I will look they shall read their several Lectures as the Statutes require And if they read treatably that their younger Auditors may observe by writing if they please one Lecture may be broken into many to their own great 〈◊〉 and the greater profit of them that hear them and a Face of the University be kept in that particular And last of all these are strictly to require you that since his Majesty hath so lately and fully exprest himself for the keeping of his Declaration in all points that you shew your self very careful in that particular and that you proceed impartially against Delinquents any way that neither one nor the other may have cause to say that you favour a Party And you have great reason to be watchful in this because you know it was objected against you at Woodstock in Dr. Potter's Case which though it appeared palpably false yet it may and ought to be a Summons to you to look warily to your self And some eye it is fit you should bear towards me even in this particular that my Government be not slandered by it Septem 23. 1631. GVIL London In this year there arose a great stir in the University by some factious men which laboured to disturb the Government both in their Sermons and in Convocation and by secret Plotings Their profest aim was to dissolve the Delegacy appointed for the ordering and settling of the Statutes and to set the Proctours in as cunning a way as they could against the Chancellor till they had almost brought all Disorder into the U niversity How far they proceeded and what issue their plots had will appear in the Acts following The Head of all these Tumultuous stirs was by violent presumptions conceived to be one whom it least became for his Coat-sake And I shall spare his name rather for his Coat than himself Right Reverend My Honourable Good Lord I Have not hitherto troubled your Lordship with Letters of Information concerning any of our University-affairs knowing into what sufficient hands you have committed the trust of them from whence I imagine you receive a weekly account But such hath been the height of our late Disorders both without and within the Pulpit that should I not some way express that I am troubled with it I might be thought a very insensible Member of this Body which you govern For these late stirs are not of an Ordinary nature but strike at the very Root of Government which now lies bleeding The Vicechancellor's d power is Questioned The Proctours that should assist him receive the Appeals of Delinquents from him The Delegates such as are rather Parties than Judges And I could wish this were all But this Gangrene will spread farther For the University by these means is likely to become the Seed-plot of Mutiners to 〈◊〉 both Church and Common-wealth with But my comfort is that the way of their own Choosing the way of Appeal which it may be at first they did not think of must at last end before his Sacred Majesty For there is nothing left but the Voice of such a Power to allay this Storm The whole University though with several affections stands now at Gaze And the end of this Business must either prove an awful peace or the letting loose of all Confusion My Duty to my King my Love to Peace and my respect to your Lordship hath commanded this Letter from me which if you please to pardon you will tread in the steps of your former goodness and oblige me to the continuance of my prayers for you whom you shall ever find Ch. Ch. Aug. 1. 1631. Your Lordships most humble and true servant Brian Duppa To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of WILLIAM SMITH Dr. of Divinity and Vicechancellor of the Vniversity of OXFORD WHereas of late the Peace of your Majesties University of Oxford hath been much disturbed through the Sedicious practices of some distemper'd Spirits who have not only in their Sermons presum'd to handle divers points of Doctrin prohibited by your Majesties strait Command but also by some not obscure passages have endeavoured to fasten the imputation of Apostacy and Back-sliding upon some Persons of Eminent quality there and elsewhere And whereas one Thomas Foord having in a late Sermon of his at S. Maries offended in that kind was thereupon by your humble Petitioner according to the Statutes of the University convented and required to exhibit a Copy of his Sermon And upon his Refusal so to do was therefore commanded to Prison He likewise contrary to his Oath disobeying that command also And Appealing from your Petitioner to the Congregation-house which by the Statutes of the University in that case of breach of Peace he might not do The Proctors notwithstanding which should have assisted your Petitioner received the Appeal and the major part of the Delegates entertained it to the wrong both of your humble Petitioner and the Government of the University and quitted the said Foord as not guilty of the Perturbation of the Peace And whereas upon this Sentence of theirs your humble Petitioner finding himself aggrieved appealed to the House of Convocation through default of Appearance of a major part of Delegates appointed thereunto your humble Petitioners Cause being there deserted and let fall is at lengh according to the Statutes of the University devolved into your sacred Majesties hands And whereas one Giles Thorne by a scandalous Sermon of his lately preached in the same Place hath likewise farther disturbed the Peace of the University and more are like to follow especially not wanting Abettors to give them encouragement unless some speedy course be taken for prevention The humble suit therefore of your Majesties poor Petitioner is that out of your special Clemency always plentifully extended towards the Church and her Seminaries your Majesty would be graciously pleased to take into your own Royal Consideration the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of your University and of the Authority of her Governours against the Practices of such as under the colour of Religion or Liberty oppugn both Church and Civil Government That so these Troubles of the University may have a present end by your Majesty's happy Coming so near it And your humble Petitioner shall pray c. IN Dei nomine Amen Coram vobis Notario publico publicâqu authenticâ personâ ac testibus fide dignis hic praesentibus Ego Guilielmus Smith Sacrae Theologiae Professor Vniversitatis Oxon. Vicecancellarius ac Commissarius legitimè constitutus animo Appellandi déque nullitate nullitatibus omnibus singulis infrà scriptis aequè principaliter querelandi omnibus melioribus viâ modo juris formâ quibus meliùs aut
Honours to their Schools and Universities for a popular Applause or out of meer Bounty or for honour or for opinion of merit by which the Art of Clergy-men transported them heretofore But the very truth is that all wise Princes respect the welfare of their Estates and consider that Schools and Universities are as in the Body the noble and vital parts which being vigorous and sound send good Blood and active Spirits into the Veins and Arteries which cause health and strength Or if feeble or ill affected corrupt all the Vital Powers whereupon grow Diseases and in the end death it self What inconveniencies have grown in all Ages by the ill Government and Disorders of Schools your Books can inform you And to come home to your selves have not our late Parliaments complained Nay hath not the Land exclaimed that our great Schools of Virtue were become Schools of Vice This I mention unwillingly but withal do most willingly tell you to your eternal praise That fince it pleased his Majesty to take to heart a Reformation and by advice of your never too often named Chancellor sent you down some temporary Orders whereby to reduce you to some reasonable moderation thereupon by the Wisdom and Resolution of you the worthy Governours and by the inclinable conformity of all the Students in general it is now come to pass that Scholars are no more found in Taverns or Houses of Disorder nor seen loytering in the Streets or other places of Idleness or ill Example but all contain themselves within the Walls of their Colleges and in the Schools or publick Libraries Wherein I must confess you have at length gotten the start and by your Virtue and Merit have made this University which before had no Paragon in any forreign Country now to go beyond it self and give a glorious Example to others not to stay behind And if those temporary and unperfect Orders produced so good effect what may now be expected from this Body of Laws and Statutes so compleat and so digested that no former Age did ever enjoy the like Thus you have understood how the Goodness of our great King how the Care and respect of your Chancellor and how the worth and substance of the work it self may forcibly induce you to congratulate your own Happiness And therefore I might here forbear to trouble you any longer with a harsh interrupted Speech but that I cannot omit to put you in mind of one thing which I know you will hear with willingness and attention because it tendeth chiefly to the honour of our God and then by his power to the honour of our King and thence to the comfort of every true hearted Subject who will readily acknowledg with Reverence and thankfulness the great blessings we now enjoy above all other Nations I will tell you but what I know for I speak within my Element I have seen our neighbouring Countries in great Prosperity and Renown their Cities stately built and strongly fortified with Walls raised up to Heaven full of People full of Trade so full of peace and plenty that they surfeited in all excess but from hence they are since fallen partly by the boundless Ambition of great Princes partly by the Factions and Divisions in Religion and generally by their Disorders into such condition that men of great Honour sent in remote Employment found whole Provinces so sack'd and depopulated that in divers Journeys they incountred scarce a Man and of those they found dead some had Grass in their Mouths and Stomachs and some were torn in pieces by Beasts and ravenous Fowls and those that were alive had no other Care or Study than how to save themselves from Fire and Sword In general there is such Desolation that without a kind of Horror the Horror thereof cannot be express'd Now we by God's Blessing are in a better Case we sit here in God's House thankful in true Devotion for this wonderful Favour towards us We enjoy Peace and Plenty we are like to those who resting in a Calm Haven behold the Shipwrack of others wherein we have no part save only in compassion to help them with our Prayers which we all ought to do as interested in their sufferings lest the like may fall on us What then remaineth but seriously to consider how all these great Blessings are conferred upon us not for our Merits or for our more virtuous and Holy Lives but only by God's favour to his true Religion and under him by the happy Government of our Gracious King which should confirm us all to a Constancy in our Obedience and to a ready subjection to all those Rules and Orders which his Majesty shall prescribe for the Publick good Wherein this general Admonition may fruitfully be applied to the Business now in hand whereof I make no doubt So I crave your pardon and your good acceptance of that which I have rudely spoken but with a true affection to this whole Body whereof though I had my Education from another-Nurse yet I had the Honour to be an Adopted Son and as I suppose one of the ancientest that lives amongst you at this day It remaineth that Mr Vice-Chancellour perform his part and proceed to the Subscriptions and Depositions of you the Heads John Coke DIE Mercurii inter horas secundam tertiam post Meridem viz. vicessimo secundo die Junii Anno Dom. 1636. unà fuerunt in Hospitio venerabilis Viri Doctoris Pink S. Theologiae Professoris Vicecancellarii Vniversitatis Oxon. notoriè sito situato in Collegio Sanctae Mariae Winton in Oxon. vulgo voca't Collegio Novo Reverendus in Christo Pater Dominus Johannes Episcopus Oxon. honoratissimi dignissimi venerabiles Viri Dominus Johannes Cook Eques auratus Serenissimae Regis Majestati Secretarius Principalis Dominus Henricus Martyn Eques auratus Judex Admiralitatis Curiae Praerogativae Thomas Rives Legum Doctor Regis Advocatus Commissionarii Domini Regis specialiter missi ad exhibendum Librum Statutorum Vniversitatis eorum confirmationem sub magno Sigillo Angliae Coram quibus comparuerunt venerabilis Vir Christopherus Potter Collegiae Reginae Praepositus Mr. Loughe Mr. Stannix Socii Collegii praedicti qui ante Convocationem eodem die habendam pro Statutorum Confirmatione Protestationem suam in scriptis Communi Sigillo Collegii sui munitam exhibuerunt eamque in Personâ suâ legit Mr. Stannix coram Commissionariis praedictis Doctore Pink Vice-Cancellario tum praesente sub hâc verborum formulâ Protestatio Declaratio Praepositi Scholarium Collegii Reginae in Vniversitate Oxon. de Jure Titulo Interesse suis in Electione Nominatione Principalis Aulae Sancti Edmundi in Vniversitate Oxon. per quam palà m publicè in quocunque celebri dictae Vniversitatis Coetu vel alibi intimari notum fieri in perpetuam rei memoriam obnixe rogant se solos in solidum habuisse habere debere
very much of this and Ambition sticks so close to Humane Nature as that it follows it into all Professions and Estates of Men And I would to God Clergy-Men had been freer from this Fault than Histories testifie they have But this hath been but the fault of some many Reverend Bishops in all Ages have been clear of it and 't is a personal Corruption in whomsoever it is and cannot justly be charged upon the Calling as this Lord lays it Neither have the worst of them some Popes of Rome excepted been the common Incendiaries of the Christian World But Incendiaries is grown a great word of late with this Lord and some of the poor Bishops of England have been made Incendiaries too by him and his Party But might it please God to shew some token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psalm 86. 17. there would be a full discovery who have been the Incendiaries indeed in these Troubles of England and then I make no question but it will appear that this Lord flames as high and as dangerously as any Man living But behold saith God all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with Sparks walk in the light of your own Fire and in the Sparks which your selves have kindled This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Isai. 50. 11. Next I pray be pleased to consider how unworthily and fallaciously withal this Lord manages this Proof For all this Discourse tends to prove it unlawful for Bishops to intermeddle in Secular Affairs that so to do is hurtful to themselves in Conscience and in Credit and to others also by this their irregular Motion And this he proves by their never ceasing from Contention one with another either about the Precedency of their Sees or Churches They have indeed some and sometimes contended too eagerly for their Sees and Churches but neither all nor any that I know with a never-ceasing but the Bishop of Rome for his Supremacy And say this were so yet these Contentions were about their own proper Places not about Civil Affairs which now should lie before his Lordship in Proof and therefore was no irregular Motion of theirs in regard of the Object but only in regard of the manner Nor were they out of their Orb for this though faulty enough The like is to be said for that which follows their Excommunicating one another upon these Quarrels As for their drawing of Princes to be Parties with them thereby casting them into bloody Wars this hath seldom happened and whenever it hath happened some Church business or other hath unhappily set it on not their meddling in Temporal Affairs But whatever caused it the Crime of such misleading of Princes is very odious and as hateful to me as it can be to his Lordship But the Persons must bear their own Faults and not the Calling and sure I am this Lord would think me very wild if I should charge the antient Barons Wars in England upon his Lordship and the Honourable Barons now living But howsoever by this 't is plain that this Lord would not only have the Bishops turned out of all Civil Employments but out of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions also They must have no Power nor Superiority there neither their Sees must be laid as level as Parity can make them For all these Mischiefs came on saith he as soon as they were once advanced above their Brethren And one thing more I shall take occasion to say Here 's great Clamour made against the Bishops and their meddling in Civil Affairs but what if the Presbytery do as much or more Do they Sin too by breaking out of their Orb and neglecting the Work of the Ministery No by no means Only the Bishops are faulty For do you think that Calvin would have taken on him the Umpirage and composing of so many Civil Causes as he did order between Neighbours if so great Sin had accompanied it For he dealt in Civil Causes and had Power to inflict Civil Punishments in his Consistory For he committed divers to Prison for Dancing and those not mean ones neither and he arbitrated divers Causes and in a great Controversie between the Senate of Geneva and a Gentleman he tells one Frumentius who laboured for a Reconciliation that the Church of Geneva was not so destitute but that Fratres mei saith he huic Provinciae subeundae pares futuri essent some of his Brethren might have been fit for that Work Belike he took it ill that in such a Business though meerly Civil he and his Fellow-Ministers should be left out And for matters in the Common-wealth he had so great Power in the Senate and with the People that all things were carried as he pleased And himself brags of it that the Senate was his and the People his And to encrease his Strength and make it more formidable he brought in Fifty or more of the French his Country-men and Friends and by his solicitation made them Free Denizons of the City of which and the Troubles thence arising he gave an account to Bullinger Anno 1555. Or can you think that Beza would have taken upon him so much Secular Employment had he thought it unlawful so to do For whereas in the Form of the Civil Government of that City out of the Two hundred prime Men there was a perpetual Senate chosen of Sixty as Bodin tells us my worthy Predecessour Arch-Bishop Bancroft assures me Beza was one of these Threescore And yet what a crying Sin is it grown in a Bishop to be honoured with a Seat at the Council-Table Besides this when Geneva sent a solemn Embassie to Henry IV. of France about the razing of a Fort which was built near their City by the Duke of Savoy Beza would needs go along to commend that Spiritual Cause unto the King and how far he dealt and laid Grounds for others to deal in all such Civil Causes as were but in Ordine ad Spiritualia is manifest by himself And I am sure Laesus proximus may reach into the Cognizance of almost all Civil Causes Or can any Man imagine that so Religious a Man as Mr. Damport the late Parson of St. Stephen's in Coleman-street would have done the like to no small hindrance to Westminster-Hall had he thought that by this meddling he had hurt both his Conscience and his Credit whereas good Man he fled into New-England to preserve both Or if Mr. Alexander Henderson would have come along with the Scottish Army into England and been a Commissioner as he was in that whole Treaty wherein many of their Acts of Parliament concerning the Civil Government of that Kingdom were deliberated upon and confirm'd if he had thought his so doing inconsistent with his Calling Or that the Scots being so Religious as they then were even to the taking up of Arms against their King for Religion
serve his turn and theirs whether the Times bear the like Necessity or not And since every thing that is fit and is for publick Good ought not by and by without more Experience of it to be made up into a Law then much less that which appears so yea though it appear never so evidently yea and to the wisest Parliament that ever sat 'T is true they may make such a thing into a Law and 't is fit for the most part so to do but to say they ought to do it is more than I can believe For no Parliament is or can be so wise as to be infallible and no Evidence can be so apparent unto them in those things of infinite variety for the publick Good and in which is so much uncertainty but that they may both piously and prudently forbear the making of some of them into a Law if they please But no Man may forbear that which he ought to do when he ought to do it And till that time comes he ought not This Lord hath now done and so have I And I shall end with my Prayers to God that this Act of Parliament now made to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the Parliament how fit soever it seems and how much soever it appears to this Lord to be for the publick Good do not turn to the decay of Religion and the great Damage and Detriment of King and Peers of Church and State Amen A SPEECH Delivered in the STAR-CHAMBER On Wednesday the Fourteenth of June 1637. AT THE CENSURE OF J. Bastwick H. Burton and W. Prinn CONCERNING Pretended Innovations IN THE CHURCH By the Most Reverend Father in GOD WILLIAM LAUD Then Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury TO HIS MOST Sacred Majesty CHARLES By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious and Dread Sovereign I Had no purpose to come in Print but Your Majesty commands it and I obey Most sorry I am for the Occasion that induced me to speak and that since hath moved You to command me to Print Nor am I ignorant that many things while they are spoken and pass by the Ear but once give great Content which when they come to the Eyes of Men and their often Scanning may lie open to some Exceptions This may fall to my Lot in this particular and very easily considering my many Diversions and the little time I could snatch from other Imployment to attend this Yet chuse I rather to obey Your Majesty than to Sacrifice to mine own Privacy and Content Since then this Speech uttered in publick in the Star-Chamber must now come to be more publick in Print I humbly desire Your Sacred Majesty to Protect me and it from the undeserved Calumny of those Men whose Mouths are spears and arrows and their Tongues a sharp sword Psal. 57. 4. Though as the wise Man speaks their foolish Mouths have already called for their own stripes and their Lips and Pens been a snare for their Souls Prov. 18. 6 7. The Occasion which led me to this Speech is known There have of late been divers Libels spread against the Prelates of this Church And they have not been more bitter which is the Shame of these raging Waves than they are utterly false which is Our Happiness But I must humbly beseech Your Majesty to consider That 't is not We only that is the Bishops that are struck at but through our sides Your Majesty Your Honour Your Safety Your Religion is impeached For what Safety can You expect if You loose the Hearts of Your People And how can You retain their Hearts if You change their Religion into Superstition And what Honour can You hope for either present or derivative to Posterity if You attend Your Government no better than to suffer Your Prelates to put this Change upon You And what Majesty can any Prince retain if he lose his Honour and his People God be thanked 't is in all Points otherwise with You For God hath blessed You with a Religious Heart and not subject to Change And he hath filled You with Honour in the Eyes of Your People And by their Love and Dutifulness He hath made You safe So that Your Majesty is upheld and Your Crown flourishing in the Eyes of Christendom And God forbid any Libellous Blast at Home from the Tongues or Pens of a few should shrivel up any growth of these We have received and daily do receive from God many and great Blessings by You And I hope they are not many that are unthankful to You or to God for You. And that there should be none in a Populous Nation even Enemies to their own Happiness cannot be expected Yet I shall desire even these to call themselves to an Account and to remember that Blasphemy against God and slandering the Footsteps of his Anointed are joined together Psal. 89. For he that Blasphemes God will never stick at the Slander of his Prince and he that gives himself the liberty to Slander his Prince will quickly ascend to the next Highest and Blaspheme God But then as I desire them to remember so I do most humbly beseech Your Majesty to account with Your self too And not to measure Your Peoples Love by the Vnworthiness of those few For a Loyal and Obedient People You have and such as will spare nor Livelihood nor Life to do You Service and are joyed at the Heart to see the Moderation of Your Government and Your Constancy to maintain Religion and Your Piety in Exampling it And as I thus beseech You for Your People in General so do I particularly for the Three Professions which have a little suffer'd in these Three most Notorious Libellers Persons And first for my own Profession I humbly beg of Your Majesty to think Mr. Burton hath not in this many Followers and am heartily sorry he would needs lead The best is Your Majesty knows what made his Rancour swell I 'll say no more And for the Law I truly Honour it with my Heart and believe Mr. Prynn may seek all the Inns of Court and with a Candle too if he will and scarce find such a Malevolent as himself against State and Church And because he hath so frequently thrust mistaken Law into these Pamphlets to wrong the Governors of the Church and abuse your good and well-minded People and makes Burton and Bastwick utter Law which God knows they understand not for I doubt his Pen is in all the Pamphlets I do humbly in the Church's Name desire of Your Majesty that it may be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by Your Majesty That our keeping Courts and issuing Process in our own Names and the like Exceptions formerly taken and now renewed are not against the Laws of the Realm as 't is most certain they are not that so the Church-Governnors may go on chearfully in their Duty and the Peoples Minds