of note above 300. Divines 108. Freeholders and Subsidy men 800. A greater number in the total â—â—en might have been expected from so small a Diocess consisting 〈◊〉 of 257. Parishes distempered by the mixture of so many Churches of French and Dutch and wholly under the command of the Houses of Parliament Many Petitions of like nature came from other Counties where the People were at any Liberty to speak their own sense and had not their hands tied from Acting in their own concernments All which with some of those which had led the way unto the Rest were published by Order from his Majesty bearing date May 20. 1642. under the title of a Collection of the Petitions of divers Countries c. Which Petitions being so drawn together and besides many which were presented after this Collection amounted to nineteen in all that is to say two from the County of Chester two from Cornwall one from the University of Oxon. and another from the University of Cambridge One from the Heads of Colledges and Halls this from the Diocess of Canterbury another from the Diocess of Exeter one from the six Counties of North-wales and one apiece from the Counties of Notingham Huntington Somerset Rutland Stafford Lancaster Kent Oxford and Hereford Nor came these Petitions thus collected either from Persons â—ew in Number or inconsiderable in quality like those of the Porters Watermen and other poor people which clamored with so much noise at the doors of the Parliament but from many thousands of the best and most eminent Subjects of the Realm of England The total Number of Subscribers in seven of the said Counties only besides the Diocess of Canterbury and the Burrough of Southwark the rest not being computed in the said Collection amounting to 482. Lords and Knights 1748. Esquires and Gentlemen of Note 631. Doctors and Ministers 44559. Freeholders which shows how generally well affected the People were both to the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England if they had not been perverted and over-awed by the Armies and Ordinances of the House of Parliament which Commanded the greatest part of the Kingdom And though perhaps the Subscribers on the other side might appear more numerous considering how Active and United that party was yet was it very well observed in reference to the said Subscriptions by a Noble Member of that House That the numberless number of those of a different sense appeared not publickly nor cried so loud as being persons more quiet secure in the goodness of their Laws the wisdom of their Law-makers and that it was not a thing usual to Petition for what men have but for what they have not But notwithstanding the importunity of the Petitioners on the one side and the Moderation of the Kings Answer on the other the prevailing party in both Houses had Resolved long since upon the Question which afterwards they declared by their publick Votes For on the 11 â—h of September tâ—e Vote passed in the house of Commons for abolishing Bishops Deans and Chapters celebrated by the inâ—atuated Citizâ—ns as all other publick mischiefs were with Bells and Bonfires â—the Lords not coming in till the end of Ianuary when it past there also The War in the mean time begins to open The Parliament had their Guards already and the affront which Hotham had put upon his Majesty at Hull prompted the Gentlemen of Yorkshire to tender themselves for a Guard to his Person This presently Voted by both Houses to be a leavying of War against the Parliament for whose defence not only the Trained Bands of London must be in readiness and the Good people of the Country required to put themselves into a posture of Arms but Regiments of Horse and Food are Listed a General appointed great Summs of Mony raised and all this under pretence of taking the King out of the hands of his Evil Counsellors The noise of these preparations hastens the King from York to Notingham where he sets up his Standard inviting all his good Subjects to repair unto him for defence of their King the Laws and Religion of their Country He encreased his forces as he marched which could not come unto the Reputation of being an Army till he came into Shropshire where great Bodies of the Loyall and Stout hearted Welch resorted to him Strengthened with this and furnished sufficiently with field Pieces Arms and Ammunition which the Queen had sent to him out of Holland he resolves upon his March to London but on Sunday the 23th of Octob. was encountred on the way at a place called Edghill by the Parliaments Forces The Fight very terrible for the time no fewer then 5000 men slain upon the place The Prologue for a greater slaughter if the Dark night had not put an end to that dispute Each part pretended the Victory but it went cleerly on the Kings side who though he lost his General yet he kept the Field and possessed himself of the Dead bodies and not so only but he made his way open unto London and in his way forced Banbury Castle in the very sight as it were of the Earl of Essex who with his flying Army made all the hast he could toward the City that he might be there before the King to serve the Parliament More certain signs there could not be of an absolute victory In the battel of Turo between the Confederates of Italy and Charles the 8th of France it happened so that the Confederates kept the Field possest themselves of the Camp Baggage and Artillery which the French in their breaking through had left behind them And yet the Honour of the day was generally given unto the French For though they lost the Field their Camp Artillery and Baggage yet they obtained what they fought for which was the opening of their way to France and which the Confederates did intend to deprive them off Which Resolution in that Case may be a Ruling Case to this the King having not only kept the Field possest himself of the dead bodies Pillaged the Carriages of the Enemy but forcibly opened his way toward London which the Enemy endeavoured to hinder and finally entred Triumphantly into Oxon with no fewer then one hundred and twenty Colours taâ—en in the fight Having assured himself of Oxon. for his Winter Quarters he Resolved on his Advance toward London but made so many Halts in the way that Essex was got thither before him who had disposed of his Forces at Kingston Branford Acton and some other places thereabouts not only to stop his March but to fall upon him in the Rere as occasion served Yet he goes forward notwithstanding as far as Brainford out of which he beats two of their best Regiments takes 500 Prisoners sinks their Ordnance with an intent to march forward on the morrow after being Sunday November 13. But understanding that the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces out of Kingston and joyning with the London Auxiliaries lay in the
goes a little further and tells us of him That the World wanted Learning to know how Learned he was so skilled in all especially Oriental Languages that some conceive he might if then living almost have served as an Interpreter-General at the Confusion of Tongues In his life time he only published two Books in Latin viz. His Apologie against Cardinal Bellarmine and that which he called Tortura Torti in behalf of King Iames and a small Tract entituled Determinatio Theologica de jure-jurando exigendo quarto Printed at London 1593. And in English nothing but a small Volume of Sermons which he acknowledged for his own The Book of Catechetical Doctrine published in his life by others but without his privity and consent he always professedly disavowed as containing only some imperfect Collections which had been taken from his mouth by some ignorant hand when he was Reader of the Catechism Lecture in Pembroke Hall But after his decease ninety six of his Sermons were collected with great care and industry published in Print and Dedicated to his Sacred Majesty by Laud then Bishop of London and Buckeridge at that time Bishop of Ely 1628. For Felton of Ely dying the year before Buckeridge had been translated thither by the Power and Favour of that his dear Friend and quondam Pupil Curle Dean of Litchfield and one of the Residentiaries of Salisbury succeeding after his Translation in the See of Rochester By the same hands some other Pieces of his both in English and Latin were very carefully drawn together and published with the like Dedication to his Sacred Majesty Anno 1629. He that desires to hear more of him let him first consult the Funeral Sermon before mentioned extant at the end of the great Volume of his Sermons and afterwards peruse his Epitaph in the Church of St. Maries Over-rhe transcribed in Stows Survey of London of the last Edition After his death the See of Winton was kept vacant till the latter end of the year next following the profits of it being in the mean time taken up for his Majesties use and answered into the Exchequer according to an ancient Custom but more old than commendable used frequently by the Kings of England since the time of William sirnamed Rufus from whom it is said to have took beginning But the Deanry of the Chappel had not been void above nine days when Laud was nominated to it and was actually admitted into that Office on the sixth day of October following by Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold before whom he took the usual and appointed Oath He had before observed a Custom as ill though not so old as the other used in the Court since the first entrance of King Iames. The Custom was That at what part soever of the Publick Prayers the King came into his Closet which looked into the Chappel to hear the Sermon the Divine Service was cut off and the Anthem sung that the Preacher might go into the Pulpit This the new Dean disliked as he had good reason and thereupon humbly moved his Majesty that he would be present at the Liturgie as well as the Sermon every Lords day and that at whatsoever part of Prayers he came the Priest who Ministred should proceed to the end of the Service To which his Majesty most readily and religiously condescended and gave him thanks for that his seasonable and pious Motion As for the Deanry of the Chappel it was of long standing in the Court but had been discontinued from the death of Dr. George Carew Dean of Windsor the Father of George Lord Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totness Anno 1572. till King Iames his coming to this Crown at what time Bancroft then Bishop of London conceiving into what dangers the Church was like to run by the multitude of Scots about him thought it expedient that some Clergy-men of Note and Eminence should be attendant always in and about the Court And thereupon it was advised that to the Bishop Almoner and the Clerk of the Closet a Dean of the Chappel should be added to look unto the diligent and due performance of Gods Publick Service and order matters of the Quire According to which resolution Dr. Iames Mountague was recommended to the King for the first Dean of the Chappel in his time succeeded in that place by Andrews and he now by Laud. But to proceed Whilest matters went on thus smoothly about the Court they met with many Rubbs in the Country some of the Preachers did their parts according as they were required by the said Instructions amongst whom Sibthorp Vicar of Brackly in Northampton-shire advanced the Service in a Sermon preached by him at the Assizes for that County The scope of which Sermon was to justifie the Lawfulness of the general Loane and of the Kings imposing Taxes by his own Regal Power without consent in Parliament and to prove that the people in point of Conscience and Religion ought chearfully to submit to such Loans and Taxes without any opposition The Licencing of which Sermon when it was offered to the Press being refused by Archbishop Abbot and some exceptions made against it the perusing of it was referred to Laud April 24. 1627 by whom after some qualifications and corrections it was approved and after published by the Author under the name of Apostolical Obedience About the same time Manwaring Doctor in Divinity one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary and Vicar of the Parish Church of St. Giles in the Fields published two Sermons of his preaching on the same occasion the one before the King the other in the hearing of his own Parishioners These Sermons he entituled by the name of Religion and Allegiance both of them tending to the justification of the lawfulness of the Kings imposing Loans and Taxes on his people without consent in Parliament and that the imposition of such Loans and Taxes did so far bind the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they could not refuse the payment of them without peril of eternal damnation But neither the Doctrine of these Preachers or of any other to that purpose nor the distress of the King of Denmark nor the miserable estate of Rochel did so far prevail amongst the people but that the Commissioners for the Loane found greater opposition in it than they did expect Many who had been Members in the two former Parliaments opposed it with their utmost power and drew a great part of the Subjects in all Countries some to the like refusal For which refusal some Lords and many of the choice Gentry of the Kingdom and others of inferiour sort were committed unto several Prisons where they remained till the approach of the following Parliament Insomuch that the Court was put upon the necessity of some further Project The Papists would have raised a Provision for the setting forth both of Ships and Men for the defence of the Narrow Seas and working
in that expectation carrying himself with such an even and steady hand that every one applauded but none envied his preferment to it insomuch as the then Lord Faulkland in a bitter Speech against the Bishops about the beginning of the Long Parliament could not chuse but give him this faire Testimony viz. That in an unexpected place and power he expressed an equal moderation and humility being neither ambitious before nor proud after either of the Crozier or White Staff The Queen about these times began to grow into a greater prevalâ—nâ—y over his Majesties Affections than formerly she had made shew of But being too wise to make any open alteration of the conduct of aâ—â—airs she thought it best to take the Archbishop into such of her Counsels as might by him be carried on to her contentment and with no dishonour to himself of which he gives this intimation in the Breviate on the thirtieth of August 1634. viz. That the Queen sent for him to Oatlands and gave him thanks for a business which she had trusted him withall promising him to be his Friend and that he should have immediate access to her when he had occasion This seconded with the like intimation given us May 18. 1635. of which he writes that having brought his account to the Queen on May 18. Whitsunday the Court then at Greenwich it was put of till the Sunday after at which time he presented it to her and received from her an assurance of all that was desired by him Panzani's coming unto London in the Christmas holydaies makes it not improbable that the facilitating of his safe and favourable reception was the great business which the Queen had committed to the Archbishops trust and for his effecting of it with the King had given him those gracious promises of access unto her which the Breviate spake of For though Panzani was sent over from the Pope on no other pretence than to prevent a Schism which was then like to be made between the Regulars and the Secular Priests to the great scandall of that Church yet under that pretence were muffled many other designs which were not fit to be discovered unto Vulgar eyes By many secret Artifices he works himself into the fauour of Cottington Windebank and other great men about the Court and at last grew to such a confidence as to move this question to some Court-Bishops viz. Whether his Majesty would permit the residing of a Catholick Bishop of the English Nation to be nominated by his Majesty and not to exercise his Function but as his Majesty should limit Upon which Proposition when those Bishops had made this Quaere to him Whether the Pope would allow of such a Bishop of his Majesties nominating as held the Oath of Allegiance lawful and should permit the taking of it by the Catholick Subjects he puts it off by pleading that he had no Commission to declare therein one way or other And thereupon he found some way to move the King for the permission of an Agent from the Pope to be addressed to the Queen for the concernments of her Religion which the King with the Advice and Consent of his Council condescended to upon condition that the Party sent should be no Priest This possibly might be the sum of that account which the Archbishop tendred to the Queen at Greenwich on the Whitsontide after Panzani's coming which as it seems was only to make way for Con of whom more hereafter though for the better colour of doing somewhat else that might bring him hither he composed the Rupture between the Seculars and the Regulars above-mentioned I cannot tell whether I have hit right or not upon these particulars But sure I am that he resolved to serve the Queen no further in her desires than might consist both with the honour and safety of the Church of England which as it was his greatest charge so did he lay out the chief parts of his cares and thoughts upon it And yet he was not so unmindful of the Foreign Churches as not to do them all good offices when it came in his way especially when the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England was not concerned in the same For in the year 1634. having received Letters from the Queen of Bohemia with whom he held a constant course of Correspondence about the furtherance of a Collection for the exiled Ministers of the Palatinate he moved the King so effectually in it that his Majesty granted his Letters Patents for the said Collection to be made in all parts of the Kingdom which Letters Patents being sealed and brought unto him for his further Direction in prosecution of the same he found a passage in it which gave him no small cause of offence and was this that followeth viz. Whose cases are the more to be deplored for that this extremity is fallen upon them for their sincerity and constancy in the true Religion which we together with them professed and which we are all bound in conscience to maintain to the utmost of our powers whereas these Religious and Godly persons being involved amongst other their Country-men might have enjoyed their Estates and Fortunes if with other backsliders in the times of Trial they would have submitted themselves to the Antichristian Yoke and have renounced or dissembled the Profession of the true Religion Upon the reading of which passage he observed two things First That the Religion of the Palatine Churches was declared to be the same with ours And secondly That the Doctrine and Government of the Church of Rome is called an Antichristian Yoke neither of which could be approved of in the same terms in which they were presented to him For first he was not to be told that by the Religion of those Churches all the Calvinian Rigors in the point of Predestination and the rest depending thereupon were received as Orthodox that they maintain a Parity of Ministers directly contrary both to the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England and that Pareus Profesâ—or of Divinity in the University of Heydelberg who was not to be thought to have delivered his own sense only in that point ascribes a power to inferiour Magistrates to curb the power controule the persons and resist the Authority of Soveraign Princes for which his Comment on the Romans had been publickly burnt by the appointment of King Iames as before is said Which as it plainly proves that the Religion of those Churches is not altogether the same with that of ours so he conceived it very unsafe that his Majesty should declare under the Great Seal of England that both himself and all his Subjects were bound in conscience to maintain the Religion of those Churches with their utmost power And as unto the other point he lookt upon it as a great Controversie not only between some Protestant Divines and the Church of Rome but between the Protestant Divines themselves hitherto not determined in any Council nor
as forward in it as any other that their Contributions mounted higher than was expected The Benevolence of the Diocess of Norwich only aâ—ounting to 2016 l. 16 s. 5 d. The Archdâ—acorry of Winchester only to the sum of 1305 l. 5 s. 8 d. And though we may not conclude of all the rest by the greatness of thâ—se yet may it be very safely said that they did all exceeding bountifully in their several proportions with reference to the extent of their Diocesses and the ability of their Estates Nor were the Judges of the several Benches of the Courts at Westminster and the great Officers under them Protonotaries Secondaries and the like deficient in expressing their good aâ—â—ections to this general cause in which the safety of the Realm was as much concerned as his Majesties honour And for the Doctors of the Laws Chancellors Commissaries Officials and other Officers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts they were spurred on to follow the example of the Secular Judges as having a more particular concernment in it by a Letter sent from the Archbishop to the Dean of the Arches on February 11. and by him communicated to the rest By which Free-will offerings on the one side some commanded duties on the other and the well-husbanding of his Majesties Revenue by the Lord Treasurer Iuxon he was put into such a good condition that he was able both to raise and maintain an Army with no charge to the Common Subject but only a little Coat and Conduct money at their first setting out These preparations were sufficient to give notice of a War approaching without any further denouncing of it by a publick Herald and yet there was another accident which seemed as much to fore-signifie it as those preparations Mary de Medices the Widow of King Henry iâ— of France and Mother to the Queens of England and Spain arrived at Harwich on October 19. and on the last of the same was with great State conducted through the Streets of London to his Majesties Palace of St. Iames. A Lady which for many years had not lived out of the smell of Powder and a guard of Muskets at her door embroyled in wars and troubles when she lived in France and drew them after her into Flanders where they have ever since continued So that most men were able to presage a Tempest as Mariâ—eâ—s by the appearing of some Fish or the flying of some Birds about their ships can foresee a storm His Majesty had took great care to prevent her comming knowing â—ull well how chargeable a guest she would prove to him and how unwelcome to the Subject To which end â—eswel was commanded to use all his wits for perswading her to stay in Holland whither she had retired from Flanders in the year precedent But she was wedded to her will and possibly had received such invitations from her Daughter here that nothing but everlasting foul weather at Sea and a perpetual cross-wind could have kept her there All things provided for the War his Majesty thought sit to satisfie his good Subjects of both Kingdoms not only of the Justice which appeared in this Action but in the unavoydable necessity which enforced him to it To which end he acquaints them by his Proclamation of the 20 of February How traiterously some of the Scottish Nation had practiced to pervert his Loyal Subjects of this Realm by scattering abroad their Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets mingling themselves at their publick meetings and reproaching both his Person and Government That he had never any intention to alter their Religion or Laws but had condescended unto more for defence thereof than they had reason to expect That they had rejected the Band and Covenant which themselves had prest upon the people because it was commended to them by his Authority and having made a Covenant against God and him and made such Hostile preparations as if he were their sworn Enemy and not their King That many of them were men of broken Fortunes who because they could not well be worse hoped by engaging in this War to make themselves better That they had assumed unto themselves the power of the Press one of the chief markes of the Regal Authority prohibiting to Print what he commanded and commanding to Print what he prohibited and dismiâ—â—ng the Printer whom he had established in that Kingdom That they had raised Arms blockt up and besieged his Castles laid Impositions and Taxes upon his people threatned such as continued under Loyalty with force and violence That they had contemned the Authority of the Council Table and set up Tables of their own from which they send their Edâ—cts throughout all parts of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws therein established pretending in the mean time that the Laws were violated by himself That the question was not now whether the Service-Book should be received or not or whether Episcopacy should continue or not but whether he were King or not That many of them had denied the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which some of them had been committed as inconsistent and incompatible with their holy Covenant That being brought under a necessity of taking Arms he had been traduced in some of their writings for committing the Arms he had then raised into the hands of professed Papists a thing not only dishonourable to himself and the said noble persons but false and odious in it self That some of power in the Hierarchy had been defamed for being the cause of his taking Arms to invade that Kingdom who on the contrary had been only Counsellors of peace and the chief perswaders as much as in them lay of the undeserved moderation wherewith he had hitherto proceeded toward so great Offenders That he had no intent by commending the Service-Book unto them to innovate any thing at all in their Religion but only to create a conformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms and not to infringe any of their Liberties which were according to the Laws That therefore he required all his loving Subjects not to receive any more of the said seditious Pamphlets but to deliver such of them as they had received into the hands of the next Justice of the Peace by him to be sent to one of his Majesties principal Secretaries And finally That this his Proclamation and Declaration be read in time of Divine Service in every Church within the Kingdom that all his People to the meanest might see the notorious carriages of these men and likewise the Justice and Mercy of all his proceedings And now his Majesty is for Action beginning his Journey towards the North March 27. being the Anniversary day of his Inauguration His Army was advanced before the best for quality of the Persons compleatness of Arms number of serviceable Horse and necessary Provision of all sorts that ever waited on a King of England to a War with Scotland Most of the Nobility attended on him in their Persons and such as were to be
come he was conveyed in Maxwell's Coach without any disturbance till he came to the end of Cheapside from whence he was followed by a railing Rabble of rude and uncivil People to the very Gates of the Tower Where having taken up his Lodging and settled his small Family in convenient Rooms he diligently resorted to the Publick Chappel of that place at all times of Worship being present at the Prayers and Sermons and some 〈…〉 â—earing himselâ— uncivilly reviled and pointed at as it were by 〈…〉 Preachers sent thither of purpose to disgrace and vex 〈◊〉 All which Indignities he endured with such Christian meekâ—â—ss as rendred him one of the great Examples both of Patience and 〈◊〉 these latter Times The principal things contained in the Charge of the Scots Commissioners were these that follow viz. That he had press'd upon that 〈◊〉 many Innovations in Religion contained in the Liturgie and 〈◊〉 of Canons contrary to the Liberties and Laws thereof That he had written many Letters to Ballentine Bishop of Dumblane and Dean of the Kings Chappel in Scotland in which he required him and the 〈◊〉 of the Bishops to be present at the Divine Service in their Whites 〈◊〉 blamed the said Bishop for his negligence and slackness in it and â—â—xing him for Preaching Orthodox Doctrine against Arminianism that he had caused the said Bishop to be reprehended for commanding a Solemn Fast to be kept in his Diocess on the Lords day as if they had offended in it against Christianity it self That he gave order for the â—aking down of Stone Walls and Galleries in the Churches of Edenborougâ— to no other end but for the setting up of Altars and Adoration 〈◊〉 the East That for their Supplicating against these Novations they were encountred by him with terrible Proclamations from his Maâ—â—â—â— declared Rebels in all the Parish-Churches of England and a 〈…〉 against them by his Arts and Practices That after the Pa 〈◊〉 made at Perwick he frequently spake against it as dishonou 〈◊〉 and unfit to be kept their Covenant by him called ungodly and 〈…〉 Oaths imposed upon their Countrymen to abjure the same That 〈…〉 nâ—t in the presence of the King and their Commissioners to 〈…〉 the General Assembly held at Glasco and put his Hand un 〈…〉 for Imprisoning some of those Commissioners sent from the Parliament of Scotland for the Peace of both Nations That when the late Parliament could not be moved to assist in the War against them he had caused the same to be dissolved and continued the Con 〈◊〉 to make Canons against them and their Doctrines to be punished four times in every year That he had caused six Subsidies to 〈…〉 on the Clergy for maintaining the War and Prayer to be made 〈◊〉 all Parish-Churches That shame might cover their faces as Enemies to God and the King And finally That he was so industrious in advancing Popery in all the three Kingdoms that the Pope himself could not have been more Popish had he been in his place Such was the Charge exhibited by the Scots Commissioners in which was nothing criminal enough to deserve Imprisonment much less to threaten him with Death And as for that brought up from the House of Commons it consisted of fourteen General Articles as before was said ushered in with a short Preamble made by Pym and shut up with a larger Aggravation of the Offences comprehended in the several Articles the substance of which Articles was to this effect 1. That he had Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Realm to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and to perswade his Majesty That he might Lawfully raise Money of the Subject without their common Consent in Parliament 2. That to this end he had caused divers Sermons to be Preached and Books to be Printed against the Authority of Parliaments and for asserting an absolute and unlimited Power over the Persons and Goods of the Subjects to be not only in the King but also in himself and the rest of the Bishops and had been a great Promoter of such by whom the said Books and Sermons had been made and published 3. That by several Messages Letters Threatnings c. he had interrupted and perverted the Course of Iustice in Westminster-Hall whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects had been stopp'd in their just Suits and thereby made subject to his will 4. That he had traiterously and corruptly sold Iustice to such as had Causes depending before him and taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his Majesties Subjects and had advised and procured his Majesty to sell Places of Iudicature and other Offices 5. That he had caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published without lawful Authority in which were many things contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative the Fundamental Laws c. and had caused many of the same to surreptitiously passed and afterwards by fear and compulsion to be subscribed by the Prelates and Clerks there assembled notwithstanding they had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation 6. That he hath assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Eccesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesties Subjects in this Realm and other places to the disherison of the Crown dishonour of his Majesty and derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters 7. That he had endeavoured to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end had maintained many Popish Doctrines enjoyned many Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies and cruelly vexed and persecuted such as refused to conform unto them 8. That 〈◊〉 order thereunto he had intruded into the Rights of many of his Majesties Officers and Subjects in procuring to himself the Nomination of divers Persons to Ecclesiastical Benefices and had taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King promoting and commending none but such as were Popishly affected or otherwise unsound in Doctrine or corrupt in Manners 9. That to the same intent he had chosen such men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion and had committed unto them or some of them the Licencing of Books to be Printed whereby many false and Superstitious Books had been Published to the great scandal of Religion and the seducing of many of his Majesties Subjects 10. That he had endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome confederating to that end with divers Popish Priests and Iesuits holding Intelligence with the Pope and permitting a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be established in this Kingdom 11. That in his own Person and by others under his Command he had caused divers Godly and Orthodox Ministers of Gods Word to be Silenced Suspended and otherwise grieved without any lawful or just cause hindred the Proaching of Gods Word cherished Prophaneness and Ignorance amongst the People and compelled
be delivered in Parliament before the thirtieth of October next ensuing Anno 1641. It may be justly wondred at that all this while we have heard nothing of the Scots the chief promoters of these mischiefs but we may rest ourselves assured that they were not idle soliciting their affairs both openly and underhand instant in season and cut of season till they had brought about all ends which invited them hither They had made sure work with the Lord Lieutenant and feared 〈◊〉 the Resurâ—â—ction of the Lord Archbishop though Doâ—med at that time only to a Civil death They had gratified the Commons in procuring all the Acts of Parliament before remembred and paring the Bishops nails to the very quick by the only terrour of their Arms and were reciprocally gratified by them with a gift of three hundred thousand pounds of good English money in the name of a brotherly assistance for their pretended former losses which could not rationally be computed to the tenth part of that Sum. And in relation to that Treaty they gained in a manner all those points which had been first insisted on in the meeting at Rippon and many additionals also which were brought in afterwards by London In their Demand concerning Unity in Religion and Uniformity in Church-Government the Answer savoured rather of delay than satisfaction amounting to no more than this That his Majesty with the Advice oâ— both Houses of Parliament did well approve of the affections of his Subjects of Scotland in their desires of having a Conformity of Church-Government between the two Nations And that as the Parliament had already taken into consideration the Reformation of Church-Government so they would proceed therein in due time as should best conduce to the glory of God and peace of the Church and of both Kingdoms Which Condescensions and Conclusions being ratified on August 7. by Act of Parliament in England a Provision was also made for the security of all his Majesties Party in reference to the former troubles excluding only the Scottish Prelates and four more of that Nation from the benefit of it And that being done his Majesty sâ—t forwards toward Scotland on Tuesday the tenth of the same month giving order as he went for the Disbanding of both Armies that they might be no further charge or trouble to him Welcomed he was with great joy to the City of Edenborough in regard he came with full desires and resolutions of giving all satisfaction to that People which they could expect though to the Diminution of his Royal Rights and just Prerogative He was resolved to sweeten and Caress them with all Acts of Grace that so they might reciprocate with him in their Love and Loyalty though therein he found himself deceived For he not only ratified all the Transactions of the Treaty confirmed in England by Act of Parliament in that Kingdom but by like Act abolished the Episcopal Government and yielded to an alienation of all Church-Lands restored by his Father or himself for the maintenance of it A matter of most woful consequence to the Church of England For the House of Commons being advertised of these Transactions prest him with their continual importunities after his Return to subvert the Government oâ— Bishops here in England in the destruction whereof he had been pleased to gratifie his Scottish Subjects which could not be râ—puted so considerable in his estimation nor were so in the eye of the World as the English were What followed hereupon we may hear too soon â—â—is good sucâ—â—ss of the Scots encouraged the Irish Papists to attempt the like and to attempt it in the same way the Scots had gone that is to say by seâ—sing his Majesties Towns Forts and Castles putting themselves into the body of an Army banishing and imprisoning all such as opposed their Practices and then Petitioning the King for a publick exercise of their Religion And they had this great furtherance to promote their hopes For when the King was prest by the Commons for the disbanding of the Irish Army a suite was made unto him by the Embassadour of Spain that he might have leave to list three or four thousand of them for his Masters Service in the Wars to which motion his Majesty readily condescending gave order in it accordingly But the Commons never thinking themselves 〈◊〉 as long as any of that Army had a Sword in his hand never 〈◊〉 inâ—pâ—â—tuning the King whom they had now brought to the condition 〈◊〉 dâ—â—ying nothing which they asked till they had made him â—at his word and revoke those Orders to his great dishonour which so â—xâ—â—pâ—rated that Army consisting of 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse that it was no hard matter for those who had the managing of tâ—at Plot to make sure of them And then considering that the Scâ—â—s by raising of an Army had gained from the King an abolition of tâ—e Episcopal Order the Rescinding of his own and his Fathers Acts aâ—out the reducing of that Church to some Uniformity with this aâ—d settled their Kirk in such a way as best pleased their own humours Why might not the Irish Papists hope that by the help of such an Army ready raised to their hands or easily drawn together tâ—ough dispersed at present they might obtain the like indulgences and grants for their Religion The 23 of October was the day designed for tâ—e seizing of the City and Castle of Dublin and many places of great Importance in that Kingdom But failing in the main dâ—â—ign which had been discovered the night before by one O Conally they brake out into open Arms dealing no better with the Protestants there than the Covenanters had done with the Royal Party in Scotland Oâ— this Rebellion for it must be called a Rebellion in the Irish though not in the Scots his Majesty gives present notice to the Houses of Parliament requiring their Counsel and assistance for the extinguishing of that Flame before it had wasted and consumed that Kingdom But neither the necessity of the Protestants there â—ot the Kings importunity here could perswade them to Levy one man toward the suppression of those Rebels till the King had disclaimed his power of pressing Souldiers in an Act of Parliament and thereby laid himself open to such Acts of violence as were then hammering against him But to proceed his Majesty having settled his Affairs in Scotland to the full contentment of the People by granting them the Acts of Grace before remembred and giving some addition of Honour to his greatest enemies amongst whom Lesly who commanded their two lâ—te Armies most undeservedly was advanced to the Title of Earl of Leven prepared in the beginning of Novemb. for his journey to London where he was welcomed by the Lord Mayor and Citizens with all imaginable expressions of Love and Duty But the Commons at the other end of the Town entertain'd him with a sharp Declaration Entituled The Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom which they presented to
provide them Necessaries before they would budge toward the Tweed And yet all these Temptations were not of such prevalency with the Principal Covenanters as an Assurance which was given them of calling Canterbury their supposed old Enemy to a present Tryal Who having been imprisoned upon their complaint almost three years since seems to have been preserved all this while for no other purpose than for a bait to hook them in for some new Imployments The Walls of some Confederacies like that of Catiline are never thought to be sufficiently well built but when they are cemented with bloud All matters thus resolved on the Covenant agreed on betwixt them and the Scots was solemnly taken by both Houses in St. Margarets Church and generally imposed upon all such as were obnoxious to their power and lived under the command of their Forts and Garrisons the taking whereof conduced as visibly to the destruction of this most reverend and renowned Prelate as to the present subversion of the Government and Liturgy here by Law established In the first branch it was to be covenanted and agreed between the Nations that is to say between the Puritan or Presbyterian Factions in either Kingdom That all endeavours should be used for the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland both in Doctrine Worship Liturgy and Government and for bringing the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechising And in the second That in like manner they endeavour without any respect of Persons the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops and Bishops their Chancellors or Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on the Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness and what soever should be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness But all this might have been pursued to the end of the Chace without danger to the life of any whether they endeavoured it or not whether their lives might be an hindrance or their deaths give a spur to put on the work And therefore in the fourth place it was also Covenanted That they should with all diligence and faithfulness discover all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from one another or making any Faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient Which Article seems to have been made to no other purpose but to bring the Archbishop to the Block as the like clause was thrust into the Protestation of the third of May Anno 1641. to make sure work with the Earl of Strafford whom they had then designed to the said sad end And this may be the rather thought because the Covenant was contrived and framed in Scotland where none but his sworn Enemies could be supposed to have had any hand in it and being by them so contrived was swallowed without much enewing by the Houses of Parliament who were not then in a con 〈◊〉 to deny them any thing But by whomsoever it was framed his Majesty saw well enough that it aimed at the subversion of the present Government and the diminution of his Power if not the destruction of his Person the preservation and safety whereof was to be endeavoured no further than in defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom Which how great or little it might be or what was meant by true Religion and the publick Liberties was left wholly unto their construction who would be sure not to interpret any thing to his best advantage His Majesty therefore looking on it as a dangerous Combination against himself the established Religion and the Laws of this Kingdom for the bringing in of Foreign Forces to subvert them all interdicted all his Subjects from imposing or taking the same as they would answer the contrary at their utmost Perils Which Proclamation bearing date on the ninth of October came out too late to hinder the taking and enjoyning of this Covenant where the restraint thereof might have been most necessary For the Commons were so quick at their work that on Munday September 25. it had been solemnly taken by all the Members of that House and the Assembly of Divines at St. Margarets in Westminster in the same Church within two daies after it was administred with no less solemnity to divers Lords Knights Gentlemen Colonels Officers Souldiers and others residing in and about the City of London a Sermon being preached by Coleman though otherwise a principal Erastian in point of Government to justifie the Piety and Legality of it and finally enjoyned to be taken on the Sunday following in all Churches and Chappels of London within the Lines of Communication by all and every the Inhabitants within the same as afterward by all the Kingdom in convenient time Prosecuted in all places with such cursed rigour that all such who refused to subscribe the same and to lift up their hands to God in testimony that they called him to witness to it were turned both out of house and home as they use to say not suffered to compound for their Goods or Lands till they had submitted thereunto A terrible and wofull time in which men were not suffered to enjoy their Estates without betraying themselves to the Kings displeasure and making shipwrack of a good conscience in the sight of God Upon which ground considering it consisted of six Principal branches it was compared by some to the six knotted whip or the Statute of the six Articles in the time of King Henry viii this Covenant drawing in the Scots and thereby giving an occasion of shedding infinitely much more bloud than those Articles did Certain I am that if all such as died in the War upon that account may not go for Martyrs all such as irrecoverably lost their Estates and Livings for refusal of it may be called Confessors Others with no unhappy curiosity observing the number of the words which make up this Covenant abstracted from the Preface and Conclusion of it found them amounting in the total to 666. neither more nor less which being the number of the Beast in the Revelation pursued with such an open persecution and prosecuted to the loss of so many lives the undoing of so many Families and the subverting of the Government both of Church and State may very justly intitle it to so much of Antichrist as others have endeavoured to confer on the Popes of Rome For if the Pope shewed any thing of the Spirit of Antichrist by bringing Cranmer the first Protestant
1571. by the power and prevalency of some of the Genevian Faction the Articles were reprinted and this Clause left out But the times bettering and the Governors of the Church taking just notice of the danger which lay lurking under that omission there was care taken that the said clause should be restored unto its place in all following impressions of that Book as it hath ever since continued Nor was this part of the Article a matter of speculation only and not reducible to practice or if reducible to practice not fit to be enforced upon such as gain-said the same For in the 34. Article it is thus declared That whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant unto the word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren More power then this as the See of Rome did never challenge so less then this was not reserved unto it self by the Church of England And as for the Authority of the Church in controversies of Faith the very Articles by which they declared that power seconded by the rest of the points which are there determined is a sufficient Argument that they used and exercised that power which was there declared And because some objection had been made both by the Papists and those of the Genevian party that a Papal power was granted as at first to King Henry viii under the name of Supream Head so afterwards to Queen Elizabeth and her Successors it was thought expedient by the Church to stop that clamour at the first and thereupon it was declared in the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy who make the representative Body of the Church of England in the 37. Article of the year 1562. That whereas they had attributed to the Queens Majesty the chief Government of all the Estates of this Realm whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases they did not give unto their Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments but that only Prerogative which was known to have been given alwayes to all godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers Less Power then this as good Subjects could not give unto their King so more then this hath there not been exercised or desired by the Kings of England Such power as was by God vouchsafed to the godly Kings and Princes in Holy Scripture may serve abundantly to satisfie even the unlimited desires of the mightiest Monarch were they as boundless as the Popes 22. Next to the point of the Supremacy esteemed the Principal Article of Religion in the Church of Rome primus praecipuus Romanensis fidei Articulus as is affirmed in the History of the Council of Trent the most material differences betwixt them and us relate to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the natural efficacy of good works in which the differences betwixt them and the first Reformers seem to be at the greatest though even in those they came as near to them as might stand with Piety The Sacrament of the Lords Supper they called the Sacrament of the Altar as appears plainly by the Statute 1 Edward vi entituled An Act against such as speak unreverently against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the ALTAR For which consult the Body of the Act it self Or secondly by Bishop Ridley one of the chief Compilers of the Common-Prayer-Book who doth not only call it the Sacrament of the Altar affirming thus that in the Sacrament of the Altar is the natural Body and Blood of Christ c. But in his Reply to an Argument of the Bishop of Lincoln's taken out of St. Cyril he doth resolve it thus viz. The word Altar in the Scripture signifieth as well the Altar whereon the Jews were wont to oder their Burnt Sacrifice as the Table of the Lords Supper and that St. Cyril meaneth by this word Altar not the Iewish Altar but the Table of the Lord c. Acts and Mon. part 3. p. 492. and 497. Thirdly By Bishop Latimer his fellow Martyr who plainly grants That the Lords Table may be called an Altar and that the Doctors called it so in many places though there be no propitiatory Sacrifice but only Christ part 2. p. 85. Fourthly By the several affirmations of Iohn Lambert and Iohn Philpot two Learned and Religious men whereof the one suffered death for Religion under Henry viii the other in the fiery time of Queen Mary This Sacrament being called by both the Sacrament of the Altar in their several times for which consult the Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs And that this Sacrament might the longer preserve that name and the Lords Supper be administred with the more solemnity it was ordained in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth no Altar should be taken down but by the over-sight of the Curate of the Church and the Church-Wardens or one of them at least and that the Holy Table in every Church be decently made and set up in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth It is besides declared in the Book of Orders Anno 1561. published about two years after the said Injunction That in the place where the Steps were the Communion Table should stand and that there shall be fixed on the Wall over the Communion Board the Tables of Gods Precepts imprinted for the same purpose The like occurs in the Advertisements published by the Metropolitan and others the High Commissioners 1565. In which it is ordered That the Parish shall provide a decent Table standing on a frame for the Communion Table which they shall decently cover with a Carpet of Silk or other decent covering and with a white Linâ—en Cloath in the time of the administration and shall set the Ten Commandments upon the East-Wall over the said Table All which being laid together amounts to this that the Communion-Table was to stand above the steps and under the Commandments therefore all along the Wall on which the Ten Commandments were appointed to be placed which was directly where the Altar had stood before Now that the Holy Table in what posture soever it be plac't should not be thought unuseful at all other times but only at the time of the Ministration it was appointed by the Church in its first Reformation that the Communion-Service commonly called the Second Service upon all Sundayes and Holy-dayes should be read only at the Holy Table For first in the last
which being the very words of the Apostle Eph. 1.4 are generally interpreted by the ancient Fathers of those who do believe in Christ For thus St. Ambrose amongst others Sicut elegit nos in ipso as he hath chosen us in him Prescius enim Deus omnes scit qui credituri essent in Christum For God saith he by his general Presence did fore-know every man that would believe in Christ The like saith Chrysostom on the Text. And that our first Reformers did conceive so it appears by that of Bishop Latimer in his Sermon on the third Sunday after the Epiphany When saith he we hear that some be chosen and some be damned let us have good hope that we be among the chosen and live after this hope that is uprightly and godly then shall we not be deceived Think that God hath chosen those that believe in Christ and Christ is the Book of Life If thou believest in him then art thou written in the Book of Life and shall be saved Secondly The Doctrine of Predestination as before laid down may be further proved out of the last clause of the said 17. Article where it is said That we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in the word of God Then which nothing can be more repugnant to the Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the Contra-Remonstrants whither Supra-lapsarian or Sub-lapsarian is no great matter which restrains Predestination unto Life to a few particulars without respect had to their Faith in Christ or to Christs Sufferings and Death for them which few particulars so predestinated to life eternal shall as they teach us by an irresistable Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the Holy Spirit be preserved from falling away from grace and favour 33. Such is the Churches Doctrine in the point of Election or Predestination unto life but in the point of Reprobation or Predestination unto death she is utterly silent leaving it to be gathered upon Logical Inferences from that which is delivered by her in the point of Election for Contrariorum contraria est ratio as Logicians say though that which is so gathered ought rather to be called a Dereliction then a Reprobation No such absolute irreversible and irrespective decree of Reprobation taught or maintained in any publick Monument or Record of the Church of England by which the far greatest part of mankinde are prae-ordained and consequently prae-condemned to the pit of Torments without respect had unto their sins as the Supra-lapsarians or to their credulities as generally is maintained by the Sublapsarians in the Schools of Calvin Much I am sure there is against it in the Writings of Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer who took great pains in the first carrying on of the Reformation and therefore we may judge by them of the Churches meaning in that particular For in the Preface to a Book written by Iohn Hooper afterwards Bishop of Glocester containing an Exposition of the Ten Commandments and published Anno 1550. we shall finde it thus viz. That Cain was no more excluded from the promise of Christ till he excluded himself then Abel Saul then David Iudas then Peter Esau then Iacob that God is said to have hated Esau not because he was dis-inherited of eternal Life but in laying his Mountains and his Heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness Mal. 1.3 That the threatnings of God against Esau if he had not of his wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of Grace should no more have hindered his Salvation then Gods threatnings against Ninive c That it is not a Christian mans part to say That God hath written fatal Laws as the stoick and with necessity of destiny violently pulleth the one by the hair into Heaven and thrusteth the other head-long into Hell that the cause of Rejection or Damnation is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel c. And in a Sermon on the third Sunday after Epiphany we finde Bishop Latimer speaking thus viz. That if the most are damned the fault is not in God but in themselves for Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would that all men should be saved but they themselves procure their own damnation and despise the Passion of Christ by their wicked and inordinate living Thus also in his fourth Sermon Preached in Lincolnshire That Christ only and no man else merited Remission Iustification and eternal felicity for as many as will believe the same that Christ shed as much Blood for Iudas as for Peter that Peter believed it and therefore was saved that Iudas would not believe therefore was condemned the fault being in him only and no body else More of which passages might be gathered from the Writings of those godly Martyrs were not these sufficient And though the Calvinian fancies in the points of Election and Reprobation got so much ground on this Church that they began to be obtruded on the people for the Doctrines of it yet were they vigorously opposed by some of our Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries dayes by Dr. Harsnet and Mr Banret in the Pulpit and Peter Baro and Dr. Overald in the Divinity Schools of Cambridge in Queen Elizabeths time by Dr. Bancroft then Lord Bishop of London in the Conference at Hampton-Court Anno 1603. being the first year of King Iames and finally by King Iames himself refusing as he did to admit the nine Articles of Lambeth containing all the points and particularities of the Calvinian Doctrines of Predestination and Reprobation among the Articles of Religion here by Law establisht when Dr. Reynolds in that Conference did desire it of him But nothing better proves the Churches Doctrine in these points than the Church it self by holding sorth the universal Redemption of all mankinde by the Death of Christ the free co-operation of the will of man with the Grace of God in the chief acts of his Conversion the possibility of falling into grievous sins Gods displeasure and consequently from the grace received all which are utterly destructive of Calvins Doctrine in this point and that not of the whole Machina only but of every part and parcel of that ruinous building as will appear by the particulars hereafter following 34. And first the Universal Redemption of all mankinde by the death of Christ hath been so clearly and explicitely delivered by the Church of England that nothing can be more plain For in the second Article it is said expresly That Christ suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for the actual sins of men Agreeable whereunto it is declared Art 31. That the offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption Propitiation
have step'd into it of whom he knew too much to venture that great charge and trust of the Church of England to his Care and Government the dangerous Consequences whereof he was able to foretell without the Spirit of Prophecy Nor was this conjecture of his without very good grounds Williams declaring in his said Letter to the Marquis That his Majesty had promised him upon the relinquishing of the Seal one of the best places in this Church And what place could be more agreable to his affection than the Chair of Canterbury Nor was this unfortunate Prelate less befriended in this desperate plunge by Sir Edward Coke a man of most profound Learning in the Laws of this Land who being ask'd the Question Whether a Bishop might lawfully hunt in his own or in any other Park in which point lay the greatest pinch of the present difficulty returned this Answer thereunto viz. That by the Law a Bishop at his death was to leave his Pack of Dogs by the French called Marte de Chiens in some old Records to be disposed of by the King at his Will and Pleasure And if the King was to have the Dogs when the Bishop died there is no question to be made but that the Bishop might make use of them when he was alive By reason of this intercurrence the new Elected Bishops could not receive the Episcopal Character till November following on the eleventh day of which Month the Lord Keeper Williams was Consecrated Bishop of Lincoln in the Chappel of King Henry by vertue of a Commission under the Broad Seal directed to certain other Bishops according to the Statute of King Henry viij And on the Sunday following by vertue of a like Commission directed to the Bishops of London Worcester Chichester Ely Landaff and Oxon. Doctor Laud Lord Elect of St. Davids Doctor Davenant Lord Elect of Salisbury and Doctor Cary Lord Elect of Exceter received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-House The next day after he took his place amongst the Bishops in the House of Peers the Parliament having been re-assembled some few days before But there was little for them to do as the case then stood The Commons were so far from gratifying the King with fresh Supplies who before had gratified them in the destruction of such Ministers as were neer unto him that they entertained him with Petitions and Remonstrances touching the danger threatned to our Religion by the growth of Popery in which they were so far transported beyond their bounds as to propose unto the King the taking of the Sword into his Hands against the Spaniard and the Marrying of his dear Son the Prince to a Lady of the Reformed Religion Of this the King had speedy notice and in a Letter sent to Sir Thomas Richardson then Speaker of the House of Commons he lets them know how sensible he was of their incroachments how bold they had made themselves with the King of Spain forbidding them to deal hereafter in Affairs of State or meddle with the Marriage of his Son the Prince concluding That if any such Petition or Remonstrance should be brought unto him he would neither vouchsafe the Answering or the Reading of it The Commons startled with this Letter and thinking to have made a benefit of the Kings Necessities cry out against it as a violation of their Ancient Priviledges and on the nineteenth day of December then next ensuing drew up the following Protestation and caused it to be entred on Record in their Journal Books viz. The PROTESTATION of the COMMONS THe Commons now Assembled being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Priviledges of Parliament amongst others here mentioned do make this Protestation here following That the Liberties Franchises Priviledges and Iurisdictions of Parliaments are the ancient and undoubted Birthright and Inheritance of the Subjects of England and the maintenance and making of Laws and redresses of Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen within this Realm are proper Subjects and matter of Debate in Parliament and that in the handling or proceeding of those businesses every Member of the House of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of Speech to Propound Treat Reason and bring to conclusion the same and that the Commons in Parliament have like freedom and liberty to Treat of those Matters in such Order as to their Iudgments shall seem fittest and that every Member of the said House hath like freedom from all Impeachments Imprisonment and Molestation other than by Censure of the House it self for or concerning any Speaking Reasoning or Declaring of any Matter or Matters touching the Parliament or Parliament business and that if any of the said Members be complained of or questioned for any thing done or said in Parliament the same is to be shewed to the King by the Advice and Assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King give credence to any private Information More was the King startled at the news of this Protestation whereof he had Intelligence before it came unto the Vote than the Commons were upon the Reading of his Majesties Letters He saw his Prerogative invaded his Paternal Right disputed a popular State growing up in the midst of a Monarchy and at the present a great Faction formed against him which if not speedily suppressed might prove unresistable Way he found none to extricate himself out of these troubles but to proceed vigorously in the Treaty for the Match with Spain which he conceived to be the only expedient to compose all Differences and recover the Patrimony of his Children For should he break off with that King and declare for a present War against him as had been desired he was to cast himself entirely on the Love of his People of whose Affections and Designs their present Actions gave just cause to be distrustful He therefore first gives Order on the nineteenth of December being the very day on which the Protestation was Voted at Westminster to Adjourn the Parliament to the 8th of February under pretence that the Members might retire into the Country for keeping Hospitality and entertaining their Neighbours in the Christmas Holydays according to the laudable Custom of the English Nation But having thus dismissed them to their several Countries without noise or trouble it was not his intent or purpose that they should come together again at the time appointed according to which Resolution he Disolves the Parliament and by his Proclamation bearing date the ninth of Ianuary discharges the Members of both Houses from any further attendance The Dissolving of this Parliament and the Transactions in the same administred much variety of Discourse in all parts of the Kingdom It was observed by some That his Majesty had broken one of the strongest Ligaments of the Regal Power by delivering up his Servants and Ministers into the hands of his People in Parliament which was a thing not used by any of his Predecessors That neither
that none of them had neither perspicuity enough to see it or Zeal enough to give warning of it And therefore he must needs conceive that Religion was made use of only for a blind or Curtain to screen some dark design from the publick view which had not yet attained to so ripe a confidence as to shew it self abroad in the open light The Mystery of iniquity had long been working in this Church not so much in the Popish as the Puritan Faction Who seeing they had no more prevailed against it by their open batteries than the Roman Emperours had done on the Primitive Church by their persecutions resolved upon more secret and consequently more dangerous practises to attain their ends In order whereunto they had perpetually alarm'd this King from his first coming to the Crown with continual dangers from the Papists for which the Gun-powder-treason gave them too much ground Nor would they suffer any Session of Parliament pass from that time forward in which the dangerous practises of Priests Iesuits c. did not sound in his ears And this they did not so much because they saw any such visible increase of Popery as was by them pretended from time to time but that they thought it the best way to carry on their other projects which they were in hand with For well they knew that when the thoughts both of King and People were totally taken up with the apprehension of the dangers which were feared from the Papists the Puritan Party in the mean time might gather strength without being noted or observed But because these interposings of the Commons in the cause of Religion became to be more eagerly pursued in some following Parliaments we shall refer the further consideration of them to another time The Parliament being ended we must follow our new Bishop to his Diocess whom we will wait upon to St. Davids a poor City God wot scituate on the Promontory in Pembroke-shire by the Ancients called Ortopitae in a safe place and far enough from the Saxons whom the Welsh most feared but incommodious enough for all the rest of the Clergy to repair unto Nor did it prove so safe for the Bishop and other Inhabitants of it as had been presumed in respect of sundry other Nations who have often spoyled and defaced it For standing near the Sea it had been frequently visited and spoyled by the Danes Norwegians and other Pyrates insomuch that the Bishops were inforced to remove their dwelling to Caermarthen a fair Market Town and beautified with a goodly Collegiate Church not far from which in a Village called Aberguilly the Bishop hath his ordinary place of Residence This brought the City of St. Davids small enough before to the condition of a Village there being nothing almost remaining of it but the Church the ruines of the Bishops Palace and some Houses appertaining to the Canons of it The Church as now it stands if any of it be now left standing was the work of Bishop Peter the forty eighth Bishop of this Diocess and by him dedicated by the name of St. Andrew and St. David though now St. Andrew be left out and St David bears the name as before it did in reference to St. David who first removed the Archiepiscopal See from Caer-leon thither The place at that time by the Welsh called Menew whence the Latines borrow their Menevenses by which name these Bishops are entituled From this removal of the See which hapned in 519. the Bishops hereof were for some time the Metropolitans and for a long time the supreme Ordinaries of the Welsh or Brittish For although Archbishop Samson the twenty sixth from St. David in the year 910. or thereabouts had carried the Archiepiscopal Pall and therewithall the Archiepiscopal dignity to Dole in Bretagne by reason of an extreme Pestilence then raging amongst the Welsh yet his Successors though they lost the name reserved the power of an Archbishop Nor did the residue of the Welsh Bishops receive their Consecration from any other hand than his till the Reign of Hen. I. At what time Bernard the forty sixth Bishop of this See was forced to submit himself to the Church of Canterbury But our Bishops Journey into Wales was not so much to visit S. Davids in which Church he had been before installed by Proxie as to bestow a visitation upon his Diocess and therein to take order for the rectifying of such things as he found amiss A Diocess containing the whole Counties of Pembroke Cardigan Caermarthen Radnor and Brecknock with some small parts of Monmouth Hereford Montgâ—mery and Glamorgan Shires For managing whereof the Bishop hath under him four Archdeacons that is to say of Cardigan Caermarthen Brecknock and St. Davids distributing amongst them all the Parishes which belong to this Diocess amounting to no more in so great a quantity of ground than 308. of which 120. are accounted for Impropriations But then we are to understand this number of Parochial Churches not taking into the Account such subordinate Chappels as had been built in several Parishes for the case of the People which might very much increase the reckoning And yet he added one more to them of his own foundation and such a one as for the elegancy of the building and richness of the Furniture exceeded all the rest together Chappels he found none at his Episcopal house of Aberguilly and one he was resolved to bestow upon it proportionably to such a Family as was fit for a Bishop of St. Davids to have about him which being finished he provided it of Rich Furniture and Costly Utensils and whatsoever else was necessary or convenient for the Service of God the very Plate designed for the celebrating of the holy Supper amounting to one hundred fifty five pounds eighteen shillings four pence Insomuch that if Felix the Proconsul had been still alive he might have cried out now as he did in the time of Iulian the Apostate viz. Behold in what rich Vessels they administer to the Son of Mary But this unhapy Age hath given us Felix's enough to reckon this amongst his crimes and so they do his solemn Consecration of it performed by himself in person according to an order firmly drawn up by the most learned Bishop Andrews then whom there could not be a greater enemy to the Errours Superstitions and Corruptions of the See of Rome I know it was objected that neither Gratian nor the Roman Pontificall conceive such Consecrations necessary to a Private Chappel but then they are to be understood of such Chappels only as are meant for prayers and in propriety of speech are no more than Oratories and not of such as are intended for Preaching Ministring the Sacraments and other acts of Divine Worship as this Chappel was And this appears so plainly by the Authentick Instrument of the Dedication that no man who hath seen the same can make question of it I have laid all these things together from his
their own distaste or smoothing up of those idle fancies which in this blessed time of so long a Peace doth boil in the brains of an unadvised People That many of their Sermons were full of rude and undecent railings not only against the Doctrines but even against the persons of Papists and Puritans And finally that the People never being instructed in the Catechism and fundamental Grounds of Religion for all these aiery novellisms which they received from such Preachers were but like new Table-books ready to be filled up either with the Manuals and Catechisms of the Popish Priests or the Papers and Pamphlets of Anabaptists Brownists and other Puritans His Majesty thereupon taking the Premises into his Princely Consideration which had been represented to him by sundry grave and reverend Prelates of this Church thought it expedient to cause some certain Limitations and Cautions concerning Preachers and Preaching to be carefully digested and drawn up in Writing Which done so done as Laud appears to have a hand in the doing of it and being very well approved by the King he caused them to be directed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York by them to be communicated to the Bishops of their several Provinces and by those Bishops to be put in execution in their several Diocesses Which Directions bearing date of the fourth of August 1622. being the 20th year of his Majesties Reign I have thought convenient to subjoin and are these that follow viz. I. That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church and they upon the Kings days only and set Festivals do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any set course or common place otherwise than by opening the coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect or natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562. or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withal as a pattern as it were for the Preaching Ministers and for their further instruction for the performance thereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies II. That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation hereafter upon Sundays and Holy-days in the Afternoons in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout this Kingdom but upon some part of the Catechism or some Text taken â—ut of the Creed or Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted and that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend their Afternoons Exercise in the Examination of Children in their Catechisms which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England III. That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at the least do from henceforth presume to Preach in any popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the universality efficacity resistibility or irresistibility of Gods Grace but rather leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that modestly and moderately by Vse and Application rather than by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities than for simple Auditories IV. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative Iurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or therein meddle with matters of State and reference between Princes and People than as they are instructed in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to these two Heads of Faith and Good Life which are all the subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies V. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent railing Speeches against the Papists or Puritans but wisely and gravely when they are occasioned thereunto by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary especially when the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other infection VI. Lastly That the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for their former remisseness be more wary and choice in Licencing of Preachers and Verbal Grants made to any Chancellor Officiall or Commissary to pass Licence in this Kingdom And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new body severed from the ancient Clergy of England as being neither Parson Vicar or Curate be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties only upon recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and seal with a Fiat from the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and a confirmation under the Great Seal of England and that such as transgress any of his directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his default by the Lord Archbishop of that Province Ab officio beneficio for a year and a day untill his Majesty by the advice of the next Convocation prescribe for some further punishment No sooner were these Instructions published but strange it was to hear the several descants and discourses which were made upon them How much they were misreported amongst the People and misinterpreted in themselves those very men who saw no just reason to condemn the Action being howsoever sure to misconstrue the end For though they were so discreetly ordered that no good and godly man could otherwise than acknowledge that they tended very much to Edification Yet such Interpretations were put upon them as neither could consist with his Majesties meaning nor the true sense of the Expressions therein used By some it was given out that those Instructions did tend to the restraint of Preaching at the lest as to some necessary and material points by others that they did abate the number of Sermons by which the People were to be instructed in the Christian Faith by all the Preachers of that Party that they did but open a gap for Ignorance and Superstition to break in by degrees upon the People Which coming to his Majesties Ears it brought him under the necessity of making an Apology for himself and his actions in it And to this end having summed up the reasons which induced him to it he required the Archbishop of Canterbury to communicate them to his Brother of York by both to be imparted to their several Suffragans the inferiour Clergy and to all others whosoever whom it might concern which notwithstanding it
lay so heavy on the stomach of H. Burton at that time a Waiter in the Court and afterwards beneficed in Friday-street that it would not down with him for many years Insoâ—much that in his seditious Sermon Entituled For God and King Anno 1636. he chargeth it for an Innovation in Religion that the Bishops then about King Iames of which Laud was one procured an order from him to inhibit yong Ministers from preaching those Doctrines those saving Doctrines as he calls them of Election and Predestination and that none but Bishops and Deans should handle those Points which he is confident to have been done by them for no other reason But thereby the more easily to make way for the accomplishing of their plot for the introducing of Popery so long in hammering So impossible was it for that King and as impossible for his Son and Successor assisted by the gravest and most moderate Counsellors to fix on any thing conducible to the peace and happiness of the Church but what must be traduced and made odious in the sight of the People by the reports and artifices of those troublesome Spirits Now as his Majesty and the Church were exercised on the one side by the Puritan Faction so were they no less troubled and disquieted by the Popish Party on the other The Priests and Jesuites upon the breaking up of the Parliament and the proceedings of the Treaty grew to such an height of confidence that they openly began to practice on some persons of Honour for seducing them and their dependants to the See of Rome Amongst whom there was none more aimed at than the Countess of Buckingham whom if they could gain unto their Party they doubted not but by her means to win the Marquiss and by his power to obtain a tolleration at the least of their Superstition The Lady beginning to stagger in her resolutions and Fisher the Jesuite who had undertaken the task continually pressing her by fresh arguments to declare her self it came at last to the Kings knowledge who was not wanting to discourse with her for her satisfaction At that time Dr. Francis White Rector of St. Peter in Cornhill was reader of the Divinity Lecture in the Church of St. Paul by which he had gained an high esteem amongst his Auditors not only for his honest Zeal against the Papists in those as they were then thought Pendulous times but for a notable dexterity in the managing of all points of Controversie No man thought fitter than this Doctor to encounter Fisher. And to that end in the beginning of this year he was desired by the Marquiss to hold a Conference with the Jesuite at which his Mother being present might hear what answers would be given to such Objections as had been made against this Church and the Religion here by Law established One Conference not being enough to conclude the business another followed not long after to which the King himself did vouchsafe his presence so great was his desire to free this Honourable Lady from the Fishers net But in that second Conference consisting altogether of particular points there had been nothing said touching an infallible visible Church which was the chief and only point in which the Party doubting required satisfaction And that she might have satisfaction in that matter also it pleased his Majesty to add a third Conference to the former on the twenty fourth of May next following not to be managed by the same parties but by our Bishop on the one side and the said Fisher on the other the Lord Keeper Williams who put in a word or two sometimes and divers other persons of Honour being also present How well he sped in that encounter the Printed Conference which came out about two years after and the justification of it published in the year 1637. do most clearly evidence or shall be shewn hereafter in due time and place Certain I am that he gained so much by that days work on the Marquiss of Buckingham that from that time forwards he was taken into his especiall favour For he himself telleth us in his Breviate on Whitsunday Iune the eighth That the Marquiss was pleased to enter into a nearer respect to him the particulars whereof were not for paper That on the fifteenth of that Month he had the honour to be made the Marquiss's Confessor which was to give him in effect the Key of his heart that on the Morrow after being Trinity Sunday the Marquiss having thus prepared himself received the Sacrament at Greenwich Which if he had not forborn for a long time before this Memorandum in the Breviate must have been impertinent and finally that on the eleventh of Ianuary the Marquiss and he were at some private Consultation in the inner Chamber at York-House on which he prays God to bestow his blessing Nor was the King less pleased with his performance at that time than the Marquiss was On the Report whereof he gave him order to digest the substance of it into Form and Method to make it ready for his hearing in convenient time and was content to give him access no less than thrice in the Christmas holydays that he might hearken to it with the more attention That King had never the command of so strong a patience as to hold out against a second or third reading if he had not found some high contentment in the first In which Conjuncture it was no hard matter for him to obtain the renewing and enlarging of his Commendam by the addition of the Parsonage of Creek in Northamptonshire into which he was instituted and inducted in the end of Ianuary We are now drawing unto a new and strange adventure greater than which was never undertaken and performed by a Prince of England The Treaty for the Match with Spain beginning in the year 1617. was afterwards more vigorously prosecuted by King Iames upon a hope of bringing back the Palatinate with it But while he fed himself with hopes the Spaniards and Bavarians had devoured the Country leaving but three Towns Heidelberge Frankendale and Manheime to keep possession for the Prince Elector in the name of the rest Which the King finding at the last and seeing that one delay begat another without promising any end to his Expectations it was by him resolved without the privity and consent of his Council that the Prince himself should go in Person into Spain that he might either speed the business or break of the Treaty Nor wanted the Prince strong impulsives to induce him to it He was now past the two and twentieth year of his Age and was so bent upon the Match that he began to grow impatient with his Fathers Ministers for not ripening it unto an issue For it is evident by Digbys Letter unto Calvert dated Octob. 28. 1623. this last then Secretary of State not only that King Iames did infinitely desire the Match but that the Prince desired it as much as he and by
Calverts Letter unto Digby on the fifth of this present Ianuary That he could have no rest for his young Master for being called on early and late to hasten the dispatch of all Some Messages and dispatches had been brought by Porter out of Spain about three daies before which winged his feet and added Spurs to the design The Journey being thus agreed on was in the very nature of it to be made a secret and therefore not communicable to the Lords of the Council for fear of staying him at home or rendring him obnoxious to the danger of an interception as he past through France which mischief if it had befaln him he must either have submitted unto such conditions or suffered under such restraints as might seem intollerable in themselves but absolutely destructive of his present purpose which may the rather be believed by reason of the like proceedings of that King with the present Prince Elector Palatine who posting disguised through France in hope to get the Command of Duke Bernards Army was stayed in the middle of his Journey by that Kings command and kept so long under Restraint that he lost the opportunity of eâ—fecting that which he desired It is not to be thought but that much danger did appear in the undertaking but Love which facilitates impossibilities overcomes all dangers On the eighteenth day of February accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham Mr. Endimion Porter and Mr. Francis Cottington he took Ship at Dover and landed safe at Boloigne a Port of Picardy Advanced on his way as far as Paris his Curiosity carried him to the Court to see a Masque at which he had a view of that incomparable Princess whom he after married But he was like to have paid dear for this curiosity For no sooner had he left the City but the French King upon Advertisement of his being there dispatcht away many of his Servants in pursuance of him commanding them not only to stay his Journey but to bring him back unto the Court But he rides fast who rides upon the wings of Love and Fear so that the Prince had past Bayonne the last Town of France without being overtaken by them and posting speedily to Madrid he entred the Lord Ambassadors Lodging without being known to any but his Confidents only That Danger being thus escaped he cast himself upon another For having put himself into the Power of the King of Spain it was at the curtesie of that King whither he should ever return or not it being a Maxime among Princes that if any one of them without leave sets foot on the ground of another he makes himself ipso facto to become his Prisoner Richard the First of England passing in disguise through some part of the dominions of the Arch-Duke of Austria was by him took prisoner and put unto so high a Ransome that the Arch-Duke is said to have bought the Earldom of Styria or Styrmark with some part of the money and to have walled Vienna with the rest Nor wanted the Spaniards some Examples of a latter date which might have justified his detention there had they been so minded and those too borrowed from our selves Philip the first of Spain one of the Predecessors of the King then Reigning being cast by tempest on the Coast of England was here detained by King Henry the Seventh till he had delivered up the Earl of Suffolk who had put himself under his protection In like manner Mary Queen of Scots being forced by her Rebellious Subjects to flee into this Realm was presently seized on as a Prisoner and so continued till her lamentable and calamitous death And what could more agree with the rules of Justice and the old known practise of Retaliation then that the English should be punished by the rigour of their own severities Such were the Dangers which the Princes person was exposed to by this unparalell'd adventure not otherwise to be commended in most mens opinions but by the happy success of his Return And yet there were some fears of a greater danger than any could befall his Person by Sea or Land that is to say the danger of his being wrought on to alter his Religion and to make shipwrack of his Faith and this by some uncharitable persons is made the ground of the design to the indelible reproach of those who were supposed to have had a hand in the contrivement of the Plot. Amongst those the Marquiss stands accused by the Earl of Bristol as appears by the first Article of the Charge which was exhibited against him in the Parliament of the year 1626. And our new Bishop stands reproached for another of them by the Author of the book entituled Hidden works of darkness c. But then it cannot be denied but that his Majesty and the Prince must be the Principals in this Fact this Hidden work of darkness as that Author calls it Buckingham and St. Davids being only accessaries and subservient instruments But who can think they durst have undertaken so soul a business which could not be washt off but by their bloud had not the King commanded and the Prince consented Now for the King there is not any thing more certain than the great care he took that no danger should accrue to the Religion here by Law established by the Match with Spain And this appears so clearly by the Instructions which he gave to Digby at the first opening of this Treaty as if it had been written with a beam of the Sun The matter of Religion saith he is to us of most principal consideration for nothing can be to us dearer than the honour and safety of the Religion we profess And therefore seeing that this Marriage and Alliance if it shall take place is to be with a Lady of a different Religion from us it becometh us to be tender as on the one part to give them all satisfaction convenient so on the other to admit nothing that may blemish our Conscience or detract from the Religion here established And to this point he stood to the very last not giving way to any alteration in this or tolleration of that Religion though he was pleased to grant some personal graces to the Recusants of this Kingdom and to abate somewhat of the Rigour of those Capitall Laws which had been formerly enacted against Priests and Jesuites Next for the Prince he had been brought up for some years then last past at the feet of this most learned and wise Gamaliel by whom he was so fortified in the true Protestant Religion established by the Laws of this Realm that he feared not the encounter of the strongest Adversary and of this the King was grown so confident that when Maw and Wren the Princes Chaplains were to receive his Majesties Commands at their going to Spain there to attend upon their Master he advised them not to put themselves upon any unnecessary Disputations but to be only on the defensive part if they should
be challenged And when it was answered That there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where no Moderator could be had The King replied That Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile upon the other the King proceeded and assured them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the Conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premises By which it seems that his Majesty conceived no such fear on the Princes part as that he could be practised or disputed out of his Religion and that he had no such fear of Buckingham neither but that he would be able to stand his ground notwithstanding any Arguments which were brought to move him And he that is so far confirmed as to stand his ground will never yield himself though he may be vanquished It was not then to be believed that me so principled and instructed as not to be forced out of their Religion should take such pains to be perverted or seduced upon worldly policies as well against their Science as against their Conscience Had they gone thither on that Errand what could have hindred them from putting the design in execution having in Spain sit opportunity to effect it at home the Kings Authority to confirm and Countenance it and the whole power of his Catholick Majesty which was offered more than once or twice to justifie and defend the misrule against all the world That they brought back the same Religion which they carried with them is a strong Argument to any man of Sense and Reason that they went not into Spain of purpose to betray it there Let us next look upon the proofs which are offered to us for Laud being privy to this journey whereof his being of Council to â—ervert the Prince and draw him to the Church of Rome there is no proof offered For first I find it charged that he wrote a Letter unto Buckingham on the fifth day after his departure and maintained a constant Correspondence with him when he was in Spain And secondly That he was privy to some Speeches which his Majesty had used to the Prince at his going hence His Majesty in some of his printed Books had maintained that the Pope was Antichrist and now he feared that this might be alledged against him in the Court of Rome to hinder the Popes Dispensation and obstruct the Marriage For the removal of which bar he commands the Prince to signifie if occasion were to all whom it might concern That his Majesty had writ nothing in that Point concludingly but by way of Argument That Laud was present at this Conference betwixt his Majesty and the Prince hath no proof at all He might be made acquainted with it on the post-fact when the Prince returned and yet because he was made acquainted with this passage though upon the post-fact it must be hence concluded as a matter certain That he was one of the Cabinet Council and privy to the Princes going into Spain and secondly as a matter probable That he suggested this distinction unto King James to please the Pope and promote the Match As little strength there is in the second proof touching his Writing to the Marquis on the fifth day after his departure But then it was not till the fifth before which time the Princes Journey into Spain was made the general Discourse of all Companies the ordinary Subject of all Tongues and Pens communicated by word of mouth by Letters and by what means not Nor can those following Letters which he received from Buckingham when he was in Spain convince him of being privy to that Journey when it was in project and design there being many others also who both received and dispatched Letters frequently from that very same person so far from being of the Council as to that particular that they were not of the Court at all So ordinary is the fate of such sorry Arguments to conclude nothing at all or that which is nothing to the purpose But what need more be said to confute this Calumny on which I have so long insisted than the great Care which was immediately taken by the King and his Bishops to maintain the Reputation of the Church of England in the Court of Spain No sooner had his Majesty notice that the Prince was come in safety to the Court of that King but order presently was taken for Officers of all Qualities and Servants of all sorts to be sent unto him that so he might appear in Publick with the greater lustre Nor was it the least part of his Royal Care to accommodate him with two such Chaplains as should be able to defend the Doctrine of this Church against all Opponents And that there might appear a face of the Church of England in the outward Forms of Worship also his Majesty was pleased by the Advice of the Bishops then about him of which Laud was one to give the said Chaplains Maw and Wren these Instructions following dated at Newmarket March 10. I. That there be one convenient Room appointed for Prayer the said Room to be employed during their abode to no other use II. That it be decently adorned Chappel-wise with an Altar Fonts Palls Linnen Coverings Demy-Carpet four Surplices Candlesticks Tapers Chalices Pattens a fine Towel for the Prince other Towels for the Houshold a Traverse of Waters for the Communion a Bason and Flaggons two Copes III. That Prayers be duly kept twice a day That all reverence be used by every one present being uncovered kneeling at due times standing up at the Creeds and Gospel bowing at the Name of JESUS IV. That the Communion be celebrated in due form with an Oblation of every Communicant and admixing Water with the Wine the Communion to be as often used as it shall please the Prince to set down smooth Wafers to be used for the Bread V. That in the Sermons there be no Polemical Preachings to inveigh against them or to confute them but only to confirm the Doctrine and Tenets of the Church of England by all positive Arguments either in Fundamental or Moral Points and especially to apply themselves in Moral Lessons to Preach Christ Jesus Crucified VI. That they give no occasions or rashly entertain any of Conference or Dispute for fear of dishonour to the Prince if upon any offence taken he should be required to send away any one of them but if the Lord Embassador or Mr. Secretary wish them to hear any that desire some information then they may safely do it VII That they carry the Articles of our Religion in many Copies the Books of Common Prayer in several Languages store of English Service-Books the Kings own Works in English and Latin Such were his Majesties Instructions to the said two Chaplains and being such they do concludingly demonstrate
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
Church of England had a great stock at that time to be driven in Spain and many of the Romish Factors were desirous to be trading in it No sooner was the Princes Train of Lords and Gentlemen come to the City of Madrid but the King of Spain assigned a day for his Reception A Reception so Magnificent so full of State and Royal Pomp that it redounded infinitely to the honour of the Spanish Court and the satisfaction of the Prince Never was King of Spain on the day of his inauguration received into that City with a more general concourse of all sorts of people and greater signs of Joy and Gallantry then the Prince was conducted through it to the Palace Royal. In which his Quarters being assigned him there wanted no allurements on their parts to win him to a fair esteem of their Religion and to put some high value also on their Court and Nation Nor was the Prince wanting for his part in all fit compliances by which he might both gain on them and preserve himself for by his Courtly Garb he won so much on the affections of the Lady Infanta and by his Grace and circumspect behaviour got so much ground upon that King and his Council that the Match went forward in good earnest A dispensation for the Marriage was procured from Gregory the fifteenth then sitting in the See of Rome The Articles of the Marriage with all the circumstances thereof were agreed upon and solemnly sworn to by both Kings Nothing remained to bring the whole business to a joyfull issue but the Consummation But before that could be obtained the Prince must try his fortunes in an harder Conflict than any he had learnt in the Schools of Love The change of his Religion was much hoped for by the Court of Spain at his first coming thither To perfect which he was plied from time to time with many perswasive Arguments by many persons of great Honour about that King And many of the most learned Priests and Jesuites made their Addresses to him with such Rhetorical Orations with such insinuating Artifices and subtle Practises as if they had a purpose rather to conquer him by kindness than by disputation Nor stop they there but dedicated many Books unto him to gain him fairly to their Party invited him to behold their solemn Processions to captivate his outward senses and carried him to the most Religious places famous for their magnificent Fabricks and pretended Miracles In which conjuncture of designs it is not to be thought but that the Pope bestirred himself in gaining to his Church a Prince of such parts and greatness For first he writes unto the Bishop of Conchen Inquisitor general of Spain not to be wanting to the opportunity which God had put into his hands The next day being the twentieth of April he addressed his lines unto the Prince extolling the piety of his Predecessors their Zeal unto the Catholick Church and to the head thereof the Pope inviting him by all the blandishments of Art to put himself upon the following of their brave examples Never had Prince a harder game to play than Prince Charles had now He found himself under the Power of the King of Spain and knew that the whole business did depend on the Popes dispensation with whom if he complied not in some handsome way his expectation might be frustrate and all the fruits of that long Treaty would be suddenly blasted He therefore writes unto the Pope in such general terms as seemed to give his Holiness some assurances of him but being reduced unto particulars signified nothing else but some civill complements mixt with some promises of his endeavours to make up the breaches in the Church and restore Christendom to an happy and desirable peace Which notwithstanding was after reckoned amongst his crimes by such as rather would not then did not know the necessity which lay upon him of keeping at that time a plausible correspondence with the Catholick party But these Temptations and Allurements these Artifices and Insinuations prevailed so little with the Prince that he still kept his stand and was found impregnable carrying himself with such a prudent Moderation in these Encounters that he came off alwaies without Envy but not without Glory And that it might appear on what grounds he stood it was thought fit to let them see that he professed no other Religion than what was agreeable to the Rules of Antiquity and not much abhorrent from the Forms then used in the Church Rome And to this end by the prudent care of the Lord Keeper Williams the English Liturgie was translated into Spanish so many Copies of the book then Printed being sent into Spain as gave great satisfaction both to the Court and Clergy The work performed by a converted Dominican who was gratified for his pains therein by a good Prebend and a Benefice as he well deserved And this I must needs say was very seasonably done For till that time the Spaniards had been made believe by their Priests and Jesuites that when the English had cast off the Pope they had cast off all Religion also That from thenceforth they became meer Atheists and that the name of God was never used amongst them but with a purpose to expose it to profanation An Argument whereof may be the extreme squeamishness of the Constable of Castile sent into England in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames to swear the peace between both Kings Who understanding that the business was to be performed in the Chappel where some Anthems were to be sung desired that whatsoever was sung Gods name might not be used in it and that being forborn he was content they should sing what they listed And when the Earl of Nottingham attended by many Gentlemen of worth and quality went into Spain to take the like Oath of the Catholick King it was reported by his followers at their coming back how much it was commiserated by the Vulgar Spaniards that so many goodly persons should be trained up in no other Religion than to worship the Devil But let us leave the Prince and return for England where the King had as hard a game to play For having left such a Pawn in Spain he was in a manner bound to his good behaviour and of necessity to gratifie the Popish Party in this Kingdom with more than ordinary Favours He knew no Marriage could be made without the Popes Dispensation and that the Popes Dispensation could not be obtained without indulging many graces to his Catholick Subjects To smooth his way therefore to the point desired he addresseth several Letters to the Pope and Cardinals in which he gives him the title of most holy Father and imploys Gage as his Agent in the Court of Rome to attend the business At home he dischargeth all such Priests and Iesuites as had been formerly imprisoned inhibiting all Processes and Superseding all proceedings against Recusants and in a word suspends
the execution of such penal Laws as were made against them The People hereupon began to cry out generally of a Toleration and murmur in all places against the King as if he were resolved to grant it And that they might not seem to cry out for nothing a Letter is dispersed abroad under the name oâ— Archbishop Abbot In this Letter his Majesty is told That by granting any such Toleration he should set up the most damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the whore of Babylon That it would be both hateful to God grievous to his good Subjects and contradictory to his former Writings in which he had declared their Doctrines to be Superstitious Idolatrous and detestable That no such toleration could be granted but by Parliament only unless it were his purpose to shew his people that he would throw down the Laws at his pleasure That by granting such a Toleration there must needs follow a discontinuance of the true Profession of the Gospel and what could follow thereupon but Gods heavy wrath and indignation both on himself and all the Kingdom That the Prince was not only the Son of his Flesh but the Son of his People also and therefore leaves him to consider what an errour he had run into by sending him into Spain without the privity of his Council and consent of his Subjects And finally That though the Princes return might be safe and prosperous yet they that drew him into that dangerous and desperate Action would not scape unpunished This was the substance of the Letter whosoever was the Writer of it For Abbot could not be so ill a Statesman having been long a Privy Councellour as not to know that he who sitteth at the Helm must stear his course according unto wind and weather And that there was a very great difference betwixt such personal indulgencies as the King had granted in that case to his Popish Subjects and any such Publick Exercise of their Superstitions as the word Toleration doth import and howsoever that it was a known Maxime in the Arts of Government that necessity over-rules the Law and that Princes many times must act for the publick good in the infringing of some personal and particular rights which the Subjects claim unto themselves Nor could he be so ignorant of the Kings affections as to believe that the King did really intend any such toleration though possibly he might be content on good reason of State that the people should be generally perswaded of it For well he knew that the King loved his Soveraignty too well to quit any part thereof to the Pope of Rome and consequently to part with that Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters as needs he must have done by a Toleration which he esteemed the fairest Flower in the Royal Garland In which respect King Iames might seem to be made up of Caesar and Pompey as impatient of enduring an equal as of admitting a Superiour in his own Dominions Or had he been a greater stranger at the Court than can be imagined yet could he not be ignorant that it was the Kings chief interest to preserve Religion in the same state in which he found it and could not fear but that he would sufficiently provide for the safety of it Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that Abbot was only the reputed Author of this Bastard Letter and not the natural Parent of it Nor was the Toleration more feared by the English Protestants than hoped for by the Papists here and presumed by the Pope himself In confidence whereof he nominated certain Bishops to all the Episcopal Sees of England to exercise all manner of Jurisdiction in their several and respective Diocesses as his false and titular Bishops did in the Church of Ireland The intelligence whereof being given to the Jesuites here in England who feared nothing more than such a thing one of them who formerly had free access to the Lord Keeper Williams acquaints him with this mighty secret assuring him that he did it for no other reason but because he knew what a great exasperation it would give the King and consequently how much it would incense him against the Catholicks Away with this Intelligence goes the Lord Keeper to the King who took fire thereat as well as he and though it was somewhat late at night commanded to go to the Spanish Embassadour and to require him to send unto the King his Master to take some course that those proceedings might be stopt in the Court of Rome or otherwise that the Treaty of the Match should advance no further The Lord Keeper finds the Embassadour ready to send away his Pacquet who upon hearing of the news commanded his Currier to stay till he had represented the whole business in a Letter to the King his Master On the receiving of which Letter the King imparts the same to the Popes Nuncio in his Court Who presently sends his dispatches to the Pope acquainting him with the great inconveniences and unavoidable dangers of this new design which being stopt by this device and the Treaty of the Match ending in a rupture not long after the same Jesuite came again to the Lord Keepers Lodging and in a fair and facetious manner thanked him most humbly for the good office he had done for that Society for breaking and bearing off which blow all the friends they had in Rome could find no buckler Which Story as I heard from his Lordships own mouth with no small contentment so seemed he to be very well pleased with the handsomness of the trick which was put upon him Laud was not sleeping all this while It was not possible that a man of such an Active Spirit should be out of work and he had work enough to do in being the Dukes Agent at the Court The Marquiss was made Duke of Buckingham at his being in Spain to make him more considerable in the eye of that Court and this addition to his honours was an addition also to that envy which was borne against him Great Favourites have for the most part many enemies such as are carefully intent upon all occasions which may be made use of to supplant them Which point the Duke had so well studied that though he knew himself to be a very great Master of the Kings affections yet was he apprehensive of the disadvantages to which this long absence would expose him It therefoâ—e concerned him nearly to make choice of some intelligent and trusty friend whom he might confide in and he was grown more confident of Laud than of any other from whom he might receive advertisement of all occurrences and such advice as might be most agreeable to the complexion of affairs Nor did it happen otherwise than he expected for long he had not been in Spain when there were many fearings of him in the Court of England many strange whisperings into the ears of the King concerning the abuse of his Royal Favours the general
The Books which had been written on both sides being purposely dispersed abroad to encourage and encrease their several Parties cross'd over the Seas into England also where being diligently studied either out of curiosity or desire of Knowledge they awaked many out of that dead sleep in which they were to look with better eyes into the true and native Doctrines of this Church than before they did Amongst the first which publikly appeared that way at Oxon. after the coming out of the said Books were Laud and Houson whom Abbot then Doctor of the Chair and Vice-chancellor also exposed to as much disgrace as by his Place and Power he could lay upon them Amongst the first at Cambridge were Tompson a Dutchman by original if I be not mistaken in tâ—e man and Richardson the Master of Trinity Colledge The first of these had writ a Book touching Falling away from Grace entituled De Intercisione Gratiae Iustificationis to which Abbot of Oxon. above-mentioned returned an Answer The other being a corpulent man was publickly reproach'd in S. Maries Pulpit in his own University by the name of a Fat-bellied Arminian By that name they were called in Holland which adhered not unto Calvin's Doctrine though many had formerly maintained these Opinions in those Churches before van Harmine came to the Chair of Leyden And by that name they must be called in England also though the same Doctrines had been here publickly Authorised and Taught before he was born So that the entitling of these Doctrines to the name of Arminius seems to be like the nominating of the great Western Continent by the name of America of which first Christopher Columbus and afterwards the two Cabots Father and Son had made many great and notable Discoveries before Americus Vestputius ever saw those Shores Howsoever these Doctrines must be called by the name of Arminianism and by that name Mountague stands accused by the two Informers though he protests in his Appeal That he had never seen any of the Writings of Arminius and that he did no otherwise maintain those Doctrines than as they were commended to him by the Church of England and justified by the unanimous Consent of the Ancient Fathers But of this man and the pursuance of these Quarrels we shall hear more shortly These matters being thus laid together let us look back on some former Passages which preceded Mountagues Disputes The Commons had obtained their ends in dissolving all Treaties with the King of Spain but lost their hopes of Marrying the Prince to a Lady of their own Religion His Majesty would not look beneath a Crown to finde a Marriage for his Son and no Crown could afford him a better Wife for his Son than a Daughter of France The Prince had seen the Lady at the Court in Paris and the King as much desired to see her in the Court of England Upon this ground the Earl of Holland is dispatch'd privately into France to see how the Queen-Mother and her Ministers who then Governed the Affairs of that King would approve the Match to which at first they seemed so chearâ—ully inclined that they did not seem to stand upon any Conditions But no sooner had they found that the Breach between his Majesty and the King of Spain was grown irreparable and that both sides prepared for War but they knew how to make their best advantage of it They thought themselves to be every way as considerable as the Spaniards were and would abate nothing of those Terms which had been obtained by the Spaniards in reference either to the Princess her self or in favour of the English Catholicks And to these Terms when they saw no better could be gotten his Majesty and the Prince consented But such a Spirit of Infatuation was at that time upon the People that they who on the 23d of February before had celebrated the Dissolving of the Treaties with Spain with Bâ—lls and Bonfires on the 21st of November following did celebrate with like Solemnities and Expressions the like Match with France And in this Match Laud is accused to have a hand or at the least to have shew'd his good affections to promote it An heavy Crime and proved by as infallible proofs that is to say his writing to and receiving Letters from the Duke at such time as the Duke was sent to the Court of France to attend the new Queen into England And what else could this Match and those Letters aim at but to carry on the same design to bring in Popery and by that means to stand their ground and retain all those Priviledges and Immunities which the Popish Party had procured by the former Treaties To such absurdities are men sway'd when Prejudice and Prepossessions over-rule the Balance We must begin the next year with the Death of King Iames and therefore think it not amiss to take a brief view of the Condition of the Church and State at the time of his departing from us He had spent all his life in Peace but died in the beginning of a War A War which had been drawn upon him by dissolving the Treaties to which he was as it were constrained by the continual importunity of the Prince and the Duke of Buckingham The Duke knew well that he could not do a more popular act than to gratifie the Commons in that business and had easily possess'd the Prince with this opinion That as his future Greatness must be built on the Love of his People so nothing could oblige them more than to be instrumental in dissolving the present Treaties But herein they consulted rather their own private Passions than the publick Interest of the Crown and they shall both pay dear enough for it in a very short space For there is nothing more unsafe for a King of England than to cast himself upon the necessity of calling Parliaments and depending on the Purse of the Subject by means whereof he makes himself obnoxious to the humour of any prevailing Member in the House of Commons and becomes less in Reputation both at home and abroad The Church he left beleaguer'd by two great Enemies assaulted openly by the Papist on the one side undermined by the Puritans on the other Of the audaciousness of the Papists we have spoke already abated somewhat by the Fall at Black-friers more by the dissolving the two Treaties about four Months after For though they made some use of the French by this new Alliance yet they resolved to fasten no dependance upon that Crown insomuch that many of those who greedily embraced such Favours as were obtained for them by the Treaties with the King of Spain would not accept the same when they were procured by the Match with France for which being asked the Reason they returned this Answer That they would not change an old Friend for a new of the continuance of whose Favours they could have no certainty and who by suffering Hereticks in his own Dominions declared
dies though his Munificence survive him It was then Midlent-Sunday and the Court-Sermon at Whitehall according to the ancient Custom in the after-noon At what time the sad News passing through London began to be rumored in the Court as Laud was going into the Pulpit to preach before the Lords of the Council the Officers of the Houshold and the rest of that great Concourse of all sorts of People which usually repaired thither at those Solemn Sermons Before he was come to the middle of it the certainty of the Kings death more generally known amongst them the confusion which he saw in the faces of all the Company his own griefs and the dolorous complaints made by the Duke of Buckingham occasioned him to leave the Pulpit and to bestow his pains and comforts where there was more need He did not think as I believe few wise men do that the carrying on of one particular Sermon was such a necessary part of Gods business as is not to be intermitted upon any occasion nor was this ever charged upon him amongst his crimes The sense of this great loss being somewhat abated he was requested by the Duke to draw up some Remembrances of the Life Reign and Government of the King Deceased which he accordingly performed and presented to him But they are but Remembrances or Memorials only like the first lines of a design or Picture which being polished and perfected by a skilâ—ul Workman might have presented us with the true and lively Pourtraiture of that gracious Prince But who will undertake to finish what Laud began I must therefore leave the deceased King to those Memorials and those Memorials to be found in his Breviate p. 5. But there was another Pourtraiture provided for that King before his Funeral His Body being brought from Theobalds unto Sommerset-house where a Royal and Magnificent Hearse was erected for him visited and resorted to by infinite multitudes of people for some Weeks together From Sommerset-house his Body was carried in great State on Saturday the seventh of May to St. Peters Church in Westminster where it was solemnly interred The Funeral Sermon preached by the Lord Keeper Williams and printed not long after by the name of Great Britains Solomon which afterwards administred the occasion of some discourse which otherwise might have been spared Thus is Iames dead and buried but the King survives his only Son Prince Charles being immediately proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland first at the Court Gates by Sir Edward Zouch Knight Marshal most solemnly the next day at London and afterwards by degrees in all the Cities and Market Towns of the Kingdom At his first entrance on the Crown he found himself ingaged in a war with the K. of Spain the mightiest Monarch of the West for which he was to raise great Forces both by Sea and Land He was also at the Point of Marriage with the Daughter of France and some proportionable preparations must be made for that Nor was King Iames to be interred without a solemn and magnificent Funeral answerable in the full height to so great a Prince All which must needs exact great Sums of money and money was not to be had without the help of a Parliament which he therefore gave order to be called in the usual manner But in the middest of these many and great preparations he forgets not the great business of the Church He had observed the multitudinousness of his Fathers Chaplains and the disorder of their waitings which puts him on a Resolution of reducing them to a lesser number and limiting them to a more certain time of attendance than before they were He knew well also what an influence the Court had alwaies on the Country by consequence how much it did concern him in his future Government that his Officers and Servants should be rightly principled according to the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England And therefore that he might be served with Orthodox and Regular men Laud is commanded to prepare a Catalogue of the most eminent Divines and to distinguish them by the two Letters of O and P. according to their several perswasions and affections And that being done he is directed by the Duke and the Kings appointment to have recourse to the most learned Bishop Andrews to know of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of Religion Especially in reference to the five Articles condemned not long since in the Synod at Dort and to report his answer with convenient speed A Convocation was of course to accompany the ensuing Parliament And it was fit not only that the Prelates should resolve before-hand what Points they meant to treat on when they were assembled but that his Majesty also might have time to consider of them These seasonable cares being thus passed over he hastens both his own marriage and his Fathers Funeral The first he sollemnized by Proxie in the Church of Nostre Dame in Paris on Sunday the first of May according to the Style of England The news whereof being brought to the Court on the Wednesday following was celebrated in the Streets of London the Liberties and out-parts of it with more than ordinary Expressions of Joy and Gladness The Proxie made to Claud. de Lorain Duke of Chevereux one of the younger Sons of the Duke of Guise from which House his Majesty derived himself by his great Grand-Mother Mary of Lorain Wife of Iames the Fifth The Funeral he attended in his own Person as the principal Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessors yet he chose rather to express his Piety in attending the dead Body of his Father to the Funeral Pile than to stand upon any such old niceties and points of State This was the third Funeral which he had attended as the principal Mourner which gave some occasion to presage that he would prove a man of sorrows and that his end would carry some proportion to those mournful beginnings The Intervall before the coming of his Queen he spent in looking to his Navy and drawing his Land Forces together for that Summers service But hearing that his Queen was advancing toward him he went to Canterbury and rested there on Trinity Sunday the twelfth of Iune That night he heard the news of her safe arrival at the Port of Dover whom he welcomed the next morning into England with the most chearful signs of a true aâ—fection From thence he brought her unto Canterbury and from thence by easie Stages to Gravesend where entring in their Royal Barge attended by infinite companies of all sorts of People and entertained by a continual peal of Ordnance all the way they passed he brought her safely and contentedly unto his Palace at Westminster The Lords and Ladies of the Court having presented to her the acknowledgement of their humble duties such Bishops as were about the Town as most of them were in regard of
Circle of Order which without apparent danger both to Church and State may not be broken his Majesty will proceed against them with that severity as upon due consideration had of their Offences and Contempts they and every one of them should deserve c. Such was the tenor of his Majesties Proclamation of Iune 14. And the effect thereof was this The House of Commons in pursuance of their Quarrel against Mountague's Books had referred the consideration of it to their Committee for Religion from whom Pym brought a Report on the eighteenth of April concerning some Arminian and Popish Tenents comprized in them It was thereupon Voted in that House 1. That he had disturbed the Peace of the Church by publishing Doctrines contrary to the Articles of the Church of England and the Book of Homilies 2. That there are divers Passages in his Book especially against those he calleth Puritans apt to move Sedition betwixt the King and his Subjects and between Subject and Subject 3. That the whole frame and scope of his Books is to discourage the well affected in Religion from the true Religion established in the Church and to incline them and as much as in him lay to reconcile them to POPERY This gave great animation to the opposite Party who thought it a high point of Wisdom to assault the man whom they perceived to have been smitten with this terrible Thunder-bolt and not to lose the opportunity of a Parliament-time when the Press is open to all comers for publishing their Books against him Some of them we have named already besides which there appeared so many in the List against him viz. Goad â—eatly Ward Wotton Prynne and Burton that the Encounter seemed to be betwixt a whole Army and a single Person Laud and some of those Bishops on the other side incouraged by his Majesties Proclamation endeavoured to suppress those Books which seemed to have been published in defiance of it some of them being called in some stopped at the Press some Printers questioned for Printing as the Authors were for writing such prohibited Pamphlets Burton and Prynne amongst the rest were called into the High-Commission and at the point to have been censured when a Prohibition comes from Westmâ—nster-Hall to stay the Proceedings in that Court contrary to his Majesties Will and Pleasure expressed so clearly and distinctly in the said Proclamation Which Prohibition they tendred to the Court in so rude a manner that Laud was like to have laid them by the heels for their labour From henceforth we must look for nothing from both these hot-spurs but desire of revenge a violent opposition against all Persons whatsoever who did not look the same way with them and whatsoever else an ill-governed Zeal could excite them too And now being fallen upon these men it may not be amiss to say something of them in this place considering how much they exercised the patience of the Church and State in the Times succeeding Burton had been a Servant in the Closet to his Sacred Majesty when he was Prince of Wales and being once in the Ascendent presumed that he should culminate before his time He took it very ill that he was not sent as one of the Chaplains into Spain when the Prince was there but worse that Laud then Bishop of St. Davids should execute the Office of Clerk of the Closet at such time as Bishop Neil was sick and he be looked on no otherwise than as an underling still Vexed with that Indignity as he then conceived it he puts a scandalous Paper into the hands of the King for which and for some other Insolencies and factious carriage he was commanded by him to depart the Court into which being never able to set foot again he breathed nothing but rage and malice against his Majesty the Bishops and all that were in place above him and so continued till the last it being the custom of all those whom the Court casts out to labour by all means they can to out-cast the Court Prynne lived sometimes a Commoner of Oriall Colledge and afterwards entred himself a Student in Lincolns-Inn where he became a great follower of Preston then the Lecturer there Some parts of Learning he brought with him which afterwards he improved by continual Study and being found to be of an enterprising nature hot-spirited and eager in pursuit of any thing which was put into him he was looked upon by Preston as the fittest person to venture upon such Exploits which a more sober and considerate man durst not have appeared in Being once put into the road it was not possible to get him out of it again by threats or punishments till growing weary of himself when he had no Enemy in a manner to encounter with he began to look up at the last and setled on more moderate and quiet courses becoming in the end a happy Instrument of Peace both to Church and State And now I am fallen on Preston also I shall add something of him too as being a man which made much noise in the World about this time A man he was beyond all question of a shrewd Wit and deep Comprehensions an excellent Master in the Art of Insinuation and one who for a long time sate at the Helm and steared the Course of his Party as one well observeth Toward the latter end of the Reign of King Iames he was brought into the Court by the Duke of Buckingham in hope to gain a Party by him There he was gazed on for a time like a new Court-Meteâ—r and having flashed and blazed a little went out again and was forgotten in case he did not leave as most Meteors do an ill smell behind him Much was he cried up by his Followers in the University City and all places else as if he might have chosen his own Mitre and had been as likely a man as any to have been trusted with the Great Seal in the place of Williams but he was not principled for the Court nor the Court for him For long he had not been in that School of Policy but he found other men as wise and cunning as himself and that he could not govern there with such an absolute Omni-regency as he had done in the Families of private Gentlemen in most parts of the Kingdom Nor was it long before the Duke began to have some suspicion of him as one not to be trusted in his Majesties Service when it seemed any way to cross with the Puritan Interest which he drove on with so much openness in the Court as was not proper for a man of so famed a cunning But that which lost him at the last was a Letter by him written to a great Peer of the Realm in which he spake disadvantageously enough if not reproachfully of the Court and signified withal how little hope there was of doing any good in that place for the advancement of the Cause Which Letter or a Copy of it being unluckily
dropp'd out of his Pocket was taken up and forthwith carried to the Duke The shame and grief of which mischance gave him so much trouble that he withdrew by little and little and at last betook himself wholly to his old affectation of a Popular Greatness By reason of his Lectures in Cambridge and Lincolns-Inn he was grown powerful in the University and had gained a strong Party in the City but died about the time that Laud succeeded Mountain in the See of London And it was well for him that he died so opportunely Laud was resolved that there should be no more but one Bishop of that City and would have found some way or other to remove him out of Lincolns-Inn to the end he might have no pretence of raising or encreasing any Faction there to disturbe the Publick But before Laud shall come from St. Davids to London he must take Bath and Wells in his way to which we are now ready to wait upon him THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB III. Extending from his being made Bishop of Bath and Wells till his coming to the See of Canterbury IT hapned during the Sitting of the late Parliament that Doctor Arthur Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells a man of great Learning and exemplary Piety departed this Life into whose Place his Majesty on the twentieth of Iune nominates our Bishop of St. Davids In pursuance of which Nomination his Majesty on the 26th of Iuly Signed the Writ of Conge d'eslire to the Dean and Chapter warranting them thereby to proceed to a new Election and therewith sent his Letters Missive according to the usual Custom in behalf of Laud. On Wednesday August the 16th they Elect him Bishop of that See and on September 18. their Election is confirmed in due form of Law his Majesty on the morrow after restoring the Temporalties of that Bishoprick from the time of his Predecessors death And now he is actually possessed not only of the Jurisdiction but of the Rents Profits and Emergencies belonging to a Bishop of Bath and Wells a double Title but relating to a single Diocess and that Diocess confined to the County of Somerset The Bishops seat originally at Wells where it still continues and in respect whereof this Church is called in some Writers Fontanensis Ecclesia The stile of Bath came in but upon the by The church of Wells first built by Ina King of the West Saxons Anno 704. and by him dedicated to St. Andrew after endowed by Kenulfe another King of the same people Anno 766. and finally made a Bishops See in the time of Edward the elder Anno 905. The first that bore that title being Adelmus before Abbot of Glastenbury The present Church in place where that of Ina had stood before was built most part of it by Bishop Robert the eighteenth Bishop of this See but finished and perfected by Bishop Ioceline Sirnamed d' Wellis Iohannes d' Villula the sixteenth Bishop having bought the Town of Bath of King Henry the First for five hundred Marks transferred his Seat unto that City 1088. Hence grew a jar betwixt the Monks of Bath and the Canons of Wells about the Election of the Bishop At last the difference was thus composed by that Bishop Robert whom before I spake of that from thenceforward the Bishop should be denominated from both places and the precedency in the Style should be given to Bath that on the vacancy of the See a certain number of Delegates from both Churches should elect their Prelate who being elected should be installed in them both both of them to be reckoned as the Bishops Chapter and all his Grants and Patents confirmed in both And so it stood untill the Reign of King Henry VIII at what time the Monastery of Bath being dissolved there passed an Act of Parliament for the Dean and Chapter of Wells to make one sole Chapter to the Bishop 35 Hen. 8. C. 15. To welcome him to this new honour his Majesty commanded him to draw up certain Instructions to be communicated to the Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of this Realm upon this occasion The late Parliament being dissolved without acting any thing in order to his Majesties Service he was necessitated by the urgency of his affairs to try his Fortune on the subject in the way of Loane which seemed to have some Regality in it For whereas the Parliament had passed a Bill of three Subsidies and three fifteens and that the said Parliament was dissolved before the Bill passed into an Act his Majesty was advised that he had good grounds to require those Subsidies of the Subjects which the House of Commons in their names had assented to and yet not to require them by the name of Subsidies but only in the way of Loan till the next Parliament should enable him to make payment of it or confirm his levying of those moneys by a subsequent Act. The Sum required to be raised was 173411 pound which was conceived to equal the three Subsidies which had been voted for him in the House of Commons though it never passed into an Act or otherwise to make up that Sum which the present necessity of setting out his Fleet required He had before pawned the Plate and Jewels of the Crown and sold as much Land to the City of London which would neither lent gratis nor take those Lands in way of Mortgage as brought in 120000 pound upon easie purchases All which he was ready to expend or had before expended on the publick safety But that not being able to make such necessary provisions as were required both to secure himself at home and succour his Confederates and Allies abroad he was forced to fall upon this course To which end he issues out his Letters of Commission bearing date the thirteenth of October directed to certain Lords Knights and Gentlemen in their several Counties In which they were required to acquaint the People that his dear Uncle the King of Denmark was brought into great distress That without present Succour the Sound would be lost his Garrison in Stoade broken by the Emperours Forces which then straightly besieged it the Eastland Trade which maintains our Shipping and the Staple of Hamborough which vents our Cloth would both be gotten from him As also that the two great Kings of Spain and France together with the Pope were joyned to rout out our Religion That their Admirals the Duke of Guise and Don Frederick d' Toledo were at that present before Rochel endeavouring to block it up And that they have store of Land-men ready on the Coast of Britain with them and other Forces to invade us Upon which grounds they were required by all plausible and powerful means to perswade the People to pay the Taxes severally imposed upon them with many other directions tending to advance the Service It was observed of Queen Elizabeth that when she had
any business to bring about amongst the people she used to tune the Pulpits as her saying was that is to say to have some Preachers in and about London and other great Auditories in the Kingdom ready at command to cry up her design as well in their publick Sermons as their private Conferences Which course was now thought fit to be followed in preparing the people toward a dutifull compliance to these his Majesties desires And to that end Laud received a Command from his Majesty by the Duke of Buckingham to reduce certain instructions into Form partly Political partly Ecclesiastical in the Cause of the King of Denmark not long before beaten and now much distressed by Count Tilly to be published in all Parishes within the Realm To this he chearfully conformed and brought the said Instructions to the Duke within two daies after being the sixteenth of September And having read them over first to the Duke and after to the King himself he received from both a very favourable acceptation On the next day they were communicated to the Lords of the Council who approved them also By whose advice he sent them to the Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him by his Letters bearing date September 29. to see them published and dispersed in the several Diocesses of his Province The like Letters he also writ to the Archbishop of York And they accordingly gave order to their several and respective Suffragans To see them made known to the worthy Preachers and Ministers in their Diocess and so far as their Lordships might in their own persons to put these things in execution and to call upon the Clergy which was under them in their Preachings and private Conferences to stir up all sorts of people to express their Zeal to God their Duty to the King and their Love unto their Country and one to another that all good and Christian-like course might be taken for the preservation of true Religion both in this Land and through all Christendom Now the tenour of the said Instructions was as followeth Most Reverend Father in God right trusty and right well-beloved Counsellour We greet you well WE have observed that the Church and the State are so nearly united and knit together that though they may seem two bodies yet indeed in some relation they may be accounted but as one inasmuch as they both are made up of the same men which are differenced only in relation to Spiritual or Civil ends This neerness makes the Church call in the help of the State to succour and support her whensoever she is pressed beyond her strength And the same nearness makes the State call in for the service of the Church both to teach that duty which her Members know not and to exhort them to and encourage them in that duty which they know It is not long since we ordered the State to serve the Church and by a timely Proclamation settled the peace of it And now the State looks for the like assistance from the Church that she and all her Ministers may serve God and us by preaching peace and unity at home that it may be the better able to resist Forraign Force uniting and multiplying against it And to the end that they to whom we have committed the Government of the Church under us may be the better able to dispose of the present occasions we have with the Advice of our Council thought fit to send unto you these Instructions following to be sent by you to the Bishops of your Province and such others whom it may concern and by them and all their Officers directed to all the Ministers throughout the several Diocesses that according to these punctually they may instruct and exhort the people to serve God and us and labour by their Prayers to divert the dangers which hang over us The danger in which we are at this time is great It is encreased by the late blow given our good Vncle the King of Denmark who is the chief Person in those parts that opposed the spreading Forces of Spain If he cannot subsist there is little or nothing left to hinder the House of Austria from being Lord and Master of Germany And that is a large and mighty Territory and such as should it be gotten would make an open way for Spain to do what they pleased in all the West part of Christendom For besides the great strength which Germany once possessed would bring to them which are two strong already you are to consider first how it enables them by Land in that it will joyn all or the most part of the Spaniards now distracted Territories and be a means for him safely and speedily to draw down Forces against any other Kingdom that shall stand in his way Nor can it be thought the Low Countries can hold out longer against him if he once become Lord of the upper parts And secondly You are to weigh how it will advantage him by Sea and make him strong against us in our particular which is of easie apprehension to all men And besides if he once get Germany he will be able though he had no Gold from India to supply the necessity of those Wars and to hinder all Trade and Traffick of the greatest Staple Commodities of this Kingdom Cloth and Wool and so make them of little or no value You are to know therefore that to prevent this is the present care of the King and State and there is no probable way left but by sending Forces and other Supplies to the said King of Denmark our dear Vncle to enable him to keep the Field that our Enemies be not Masters of all on the sudden You are further to take notice how both we and the whole State stand bound in Honour and Conscience to supply the present necessity of the King of Denmark For this quarrel is more nearly ours the recovery of the Ancient Inheritance of our dear Sister and her Children The King of Denmark stands not so near in bloud unto her as we do Yet for her and our sakes that brave and valiant King hath adventured into the field and in that ingagement hath not only hazarded his Person but as things go now it may turn to some danger to his own Kingdom and Posterity should he not receive aide and succour from us without delay Which should it happen as God forbid will be one of the greatest dishonours that ever this Kingdom was stained withall Nor is danger and dishonour all the mischief that is like to follow this disaster For if it be not presently relieved the Cause of Religion is not only likely to suffer by it in some one part as it hath already in a fearful manner in the Palatinate but in all places where it hath gotten any footing So that if we supply not presently our Allies and Confederates in this case it is like to prove the extirpation of true Religion and the re-planting of Romish Superstition in all
rents they not only suffer but make in the Coat of Christ What is it Is Christ only thought fit to wear a torn Garment Or can we think that the Spirit of Vnity which is one with Christ will not depart to seek warmer cloathing Or if he be not gone already why is there not Vnity which is where ere he is Or if he be but yet gone from other parts of Christendom in any case for the passion and in the bowels of Iesus Christ I beg it let us make stay of him here in our parts c. Which Sermon being all of the same piece so well pleased the Hearers that his Majesty gave command to have it Printed How well it edified with the Commons when they came to read it and what thanks he received from them for it we shall clearly see before we come to the end of this present Session The Sermon being ended his Majesty set forwards to the House of Peers where sitting in his Royal Throne and causing the Commons then assembled to come before him he signified in few words That no man as he conceived could be so ignorant of the Common necessity as to expostulate the cause of this Meeting and not to think Supply to be the end of it That as this necessity was the product and consequent of their Advice he means in reference to his first ingaging in the War with Spain so the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and just Defence of his Friends and Allies being so considerably concerned would be he hoped Arguments enough to perswade Supply That he had taken the most ancient speedy and best way for Supply by calling them together in which if they should not do their duties in answering the quality of his occasions he must then take some other course for the saving of that which the folly of some particular men might hazard to lose That notwithstanding the distractions of the last Meeting he came thither with no small confidence of good success assuring them that he would forget and forgive whatsoever was past and hoping that they would follow that sacred Advice lately inculcated To maintain the VNITY of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Which being said the Lord Keeper took his turn to speak as the Custom is in which Speech he chiefly laboured to lay before them the formidable Power of the House of Austria the mighty Preparations made by the King of Spain the Distractions at the present in the Netherlands the Dangers threatned by the French King to those of the Reformed Religion in his Dominions and the necessity which lay upon the King to provide for the support thereof as well as for the Peace and Preservation of his own Estate concluding with severall reasons to invite them to assist his Majesty with a bountiful and quick supply according to the exigency of his affairs But all this little ediâ—ied with the House of Commons or rather with the prevailing Party in it which comes all to one For so it happens commonly in all great Councils that some few leading Members either by their diligence or cunning out-wit the rest and form a party strong enough by casting a mist before their eyes or other subtle Artifices to effect their purpose And so it fared in this last Parliament with the House of Commons which though it contained amongst the rest as dutiful Subjects as any were in the world in his Majesties own acknowledgment of them yet being governed by some men which had their interesses apart from the Crown they are put upon a resolution of doing their own business first and the Kings at leisure And their own business it must be to secure the plots and practises of the Puritan Faction by turning all mens eyes upon such dangers as were to be feared from the Papists and in the next place to make such provision for themselves that it should not be within the power of the Royal Prerogative to lay any restraint upon their persons No sooner had they obtained their Faâ—t without which nothing could be done but they moved the Lords to joyn with them in a Petition for the suppresâ—ing of Popery which they conceived to make the Wall of Separation betwixt God and them to which they found their Lordships willing to consent and his Majesty no less willing to satisfie them in all parts thereof than they could desire For calling both houses before him on the fourth of April He told them he liked well of their beginning with Religion and hoped their Consultations would succeed the happier That he was as careful of Religion and should be as forward in it as they could desire That he liked well of the Petition and would make use of those and all other means for the maintenance and propagation of that true Religion wherein he had lived and by the grace of God was resolved to dye And finally That for the particulars they should receive a more full answer hereafter as they shortly did Which said he put them in remembrance That if Provisions were not speedily made he should not be able to put a ship to sea this year But though his Majesty gave so full and satisfactory an answer to every particular branch of the said Petition that Sir Benjamin Ruddiard moved the House to tender their humble thanks to his Majesty for it yet to the close of his Majesties Speech touching the speedy making of provisions for that Summers Service they returned no answer They must first know whether they had any thing to give or not whether they are to be accounted as Slaves or Freemen to which two doubts the late imprisonment of their Members for not paying the Loan required of them gave them ground enough These weighty Questions being started their own property and Liberty must first be setled before they could be perswaded to move a foot toward his Majesties supplies Five Subsidies they had voted for him but it passed no further than the Vote For seeing that there was to be a trust on the one side or the other it was resolved that the honour of it should be theirs The agitating of which Points with those which depended thereupon took up so much time that before the Lords could be brought to joyn with the Commons and both together could obtain their desires of the King there was spent as far as to the seventh of Iune and it was ten daies after before they had prepared the Bill of Subsidies for the Kings Assent Nothing in all this business did so trouble his Majesty as their insisting on this point That in no case whatsoever though it never so nearly concerned matters of State and Government he of his Privy Council should have power to commit any man to prison without shewing the cause and that cause to be allowed or disallowed as his Majesties Judges should think fit on the Habeas Corpus of which his Majesty well observed in a Letter by him written
to the Peers on the twelfth of May That by shewing the cause of the Commitment the whole Service many times might happen to be destroyed and that the cause also might be such and of a nature so transcending the Rules of Law that the Judges had no capacity in a Court of Judicature to determine in it The intermitting of which power being one of the constant Rules of Government practised for so many Ages within this Kingdom would as he said soon dissolve the very frame and foundation of his Monarchy and therefore that with out the overthrow of his Soveraignty he could not suffer these powers to be impeached But what reason soever he had to alledge for himself he was so bent on his desires to relieve the Rochellers and keep that honour up abroad which he lost at home that at the last he condescended unto their desires and confirmed the prayer of their Petition by Act of Parliament Nor would they rest upon that point They thought they had not done themselves right enough in disputing their Property with the King in Parliament if they suffered it to be preached down in the Court and Country Manwaring therefore of whose Sermons we have spake before must be brought in for an example unto others Whose charge being drawn up by the Commons was reported to the Peers by Pym Iune 13. The Book of his two Sermons produced before them the passages which gave offence openly read and aggravated to the very height And though the poor man on his knees with tears in his eyes and sorrows in his heart had most humbly craved pardon of the Lords and Commons for the errors and indiscretions he had committed in the said two Sermons yet could he find no other mercy than 1. To be imprisoned during the pleasure of the House 2. To be fined one thousand pounds to the King 3. To make such an acknowledgment of his offence at the Commons Bar as it should please them to prescribe 4. To be suspended from his Ministry for three years to come 5. To be disabled from ever preaching at the Court 6. To be uncapable of any further Ecclesiastical preferment or secular Office And finally That his Majesty should be moved to call in the said Book by Proclamation and cause it to be publickly burnt An heavy Sentence I confess but such as did rather affright than hurt him For his Majesty looking on him in that conjuncture as one that suffered in his cause preferred him first to the Parsonage of Stamford-Rivers in Essex void not long after by the promotion of Mountague to the See of Chichesâ—er afterwards to the Deanry of Worcester and finally to the Bishoprick of St. Davids This was indeed the way to have his Majesty well served but such as created some ill thoughts amongst the Commons for his Majesties Indulgence to him But they had a greater game to fly at than to content themselves with so poor a Sacrifice The day before complaint was made unto the Commons that Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells had warranted those Sermons to the Press and him they had as good a mind â—o as to any other There had been some liftings at him in the Court by Sir Iohn Cook who had informed against him to the Lord Treasurer then being And by the Lord Treasurer to the Duke where the business stopt And there had been some liftings at him in the Country also there being some mutterings spread abroad that some Sacrifices must be made for expiating the ill success in the Isle of Rhe and that he was as like as any to be made the Sacrifice Which comming to his ears from two several persons he thought fit to acquaint his Majesty with it who thereupon returned this most gracious answer That he should not trouble himself with such reports till he saw him forsake his other friends Had he stood still upon that principle he had never fallen Such Princes as forsake their Servants will be forsaken by their Servants in their greatest need and neither be well served at home nor observed abroad But it appeared by the event that those mutterings were not made without some ground and that somewhat was then plotting toward his destruction For Manwaring was no sooner censured but Lauds cause was called to the report some daies before viz. Iune 11. they had voted the Duke of Buckingham to be the cause of all the grievances and now they were hammering a Remonstrance both against him and all that depended on him In which Remonstrance having first besprinkled the King with some Court holy-water for granting their Petition of Right they make bold to represent unto him That there was a general fear conceived in his people of some secret working and combination to introduce into this Kingdom innovation and change of holy Religion Which fear proceeded as they said from the encrease of Popery in this Kingdom and the extraordinary favours and respects which they of that Religion found in the Court from persons of great quality and power there unto whom they continually resort more especially by name from the Countess of Buckingham the Dukes Mother Secondly From some Letters written by his Majesty to stop all legal proceedings against Recusants and the Compositions which had been made with some of them for such fines and penalties as were laid upon them by the Laws which seemed in their opinion little less than a Toleration Thirdly From the dayly growth and spreading of the Faction of the Arminians that being as they thought his Majesty knew but a cunning way to bring in Popery the professors of those opinions being common disturbers of the Protestant Churches and Incendiaries of those states wherein they have gotten any head being Protestants in shew but Iesuites in opinion and practice Of which growing Faction Neile Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells are named particularly for the principal Patrons Fourthly From some endeavours to suppress the diligent teaching and instructing the people in the true knowledge of Almighty God by disparaging pious painful and Orthodox Preachers Fifthly From the miserable condition of the Kingdom of Ireland in which without controule the Popish Religion is affirmed to be openly professed Popish Superstition being generally exercised and avowed Monasteries and Nunneries newly erected c In the last place they lay before him their former grievances now redressed the design of raising moneys by the way of Excise and of bringing in some Regiments of German horse though never put into execution a Commission of Lieutenancy granted to the Duke of Buckingham they supposed decay of Trade in all parts of the Kingdom the improvident consumption of the stock of Gunpowder the loss of the Regality of the Narrow Seas the taking of many Merchants Ships by the Pyrates of Dunkirk c. The cause of all which mischiefs is imputed to the excessive power of the Duke of Buckingham and his abusing of that power This Remonstrance being thus digested
it was presented to his Majesty together with the Bill of Subsidies on the seventeenth of Iune At the receiving thereof his Majesty was pleased to use these words That on his Answer to their Petition of Right he expected no such Declaration from them which containeth divers points of state touching the Church and Common-wealth that he conceived they did believe he understood them better than themselves But that since the reading thereof he perceived they understood those things less than he imagined and that notwithstanding he would take them into such consideration as they deserved Nor was it long after his Majesties receiving of this Remonstrance but that they were drawing up another to take away his right to Tonnage and Poundage Which coming to his Majesties knowledge he resolved to be beforehand with them and dissolve the Parliament which was done accordingly Iune 26. At the dissolving whereof his Majesty gave this further censure on the said Remonstrance viz. That the acceptableness thereof unto him every man might judge and that he would not call in question the merit of it because he was sure no wise man could justifie it And possibly it had escaped without any further censure if the Commons for the ostentation of their Zeal and Piety had not caused it to be Printed and dispersed abroad with which his Majesty being acquainted he commanded it to be called in by Proclamation as tending to the defamation of his Person and Government But no sooner was the Parliament ended but he gave order unto Laud whom he â—ound to be much concerned in it to return an answer thereunto which he who knew no better Sacrifice than obedience did very chearfully perform which Answer for so much as concerns Religion the Preamble and Conclusion being laid aside we shall here subjoyn And first saith he that Remonstrance begins at Religion and fears of innovation in it Innovation by Popery but we would have our Subjects of all sorts to call to mind what difficulties and dangers we endured not many years since for Religions sake That we are the same still and our holy Religion is as pretious to us as it is or can be to any of them and we will no more admit innovation therein than they that think they have done well in fearing it so much It is true that all effects expected have not followed upon the Petitions delivered at Oxon but we are in least fault for that for supply being not afforded us disenabled us to execute all that was desired and caused the stay of those legal proceedings which have helped to swell up this Remonstrance Yet let all the Counties of England be examined and London with the Suburbs with them neither is there such a noted increase of Papists nor such cause of fear as is made nor hath any amounted to such an odious tolerating as is charged upon it nor near any such For that Commission so much complained of both the matter and intent of it are utterly mistaken for it doth not dispence with any penalty or any course to be taken with any Papists for the exercise of their Religion no nor with the Pecuniary Mulets or non-conformity to ours it was advised for the encrease of our profits and the returning of that into our Purse which abuse or connivency of inferiour Ministers might perhaps divert another way if that or any other shall be abused in the execution we will be ready to punish upon any just complaint The next fear is the dayly growth and spreading of the Arminian Faction called a cunning way to bring in Popery but we hold this Charge as great a wrong to our Self and Government as the former For our People must not be taught by a Parliament Remonstrance or any other way that we are so ignorant of Truth or so careless of the profession of it that any opinion or faction or whatever it be called should thrust it self so far and so fast into our Kingdom without our knowledge of it this is a meer dream of them that wake and would make our loyal and loving People think we sleep the while In this Charge there is great wrong done to two eminent Prelates that attend our Person for they are accused without producing any the least shew or shadow of Proof against them and should they or any other attempt Innovation of Religion either by that open or any cunning way we should quickly take other Order with them and not stay for your Remonstrance To keep on this our people are made believe That there is a restraint of Books Orthodoxal but we are sure since the late Parliament began some whom the Remonstrance calls Orthodox have assumed unto themselves an unsufferable Liberty in Printing Our Proclamation commanded a Restraint on both sides till the Passions of men might subside and calm and had this been obeyed as it ought we had not now been tossed in this Tempest And for the distressing and discountenancing of Good Preachers we know there is none if they be as they are called Good But our People shall never want that Spiritual Comfort which is due unto them and for the Preferments which we bestow we have so made it our great Care to give them as Rewards of Desert and Pains but as the Preferments are ours so will we be judge of the Desert Our self and not be taught by a Remonstrance For Ireland we think in case of Religion it is not worse than Queen Elizabeth left it and for other Affairs it is as good as we found it nay perhaps better and we take it as a great disparagement to our Government that it should be voiced That new Monasteries Nunneries and other Superstitious Houses are Erected and Replenished in Dublin and other great Towns of that our Kingdom For we assure our self our Deputy and Council there will not suffer God and our Government so to be dishonoured but we should have some account of it from them and we may not endure to have our good People thus misled with Shews There is likewise somewhat considerable in the time when these Practises to undermine true Religion in our Kingdoms are set on foot The Remonstrance tells us it is now when Religion is opposed by open force in all Parts But we must tell our People There is no undermining Practice at home against it if they practice not against it that seem most to labour for it for while Religion seems to be contended for in such a Factious way which cannot be Gods way the heat of that doth often melt away the Purity which it labours earnestly but perhaps not wisely to preserve And for Gods Iudgments which we and our People have felt and have cause to fear we shall prevent them best by a true Religious Remonstrance of the amendment of our Lives c. This and the rest of the Answer to the said Remonstrance is all what I find acted by Laud in reference to the present Parliament For That he should
mature deliberation and with the Advice of so many of Our Bishops as might conveniently be called together thought fit to make this Declaration following That the Articles of the Church of England which had been allowed and authorized heretofore and which Our Clergy generally have subscribed unto do contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods Word which We do therefore ratifie and confirm requiring all Our loving Subjects to continue in the Vniform Profession thereof and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles which to that end We command to be reprinted and this Our Declaration to be published therewith That We are Supreme Governour of the Church of England and that if any difference arise about the External Policie concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever thereunto belonging the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal so to do And We approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions providing that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land That out of Our Princely care that the Church-men may do the work which is proper unto them the Bishops and Clergie from time to time in Convocation upon their humble desire shall have licence under Our Broad Seal to deliberate of and to do all such things as being made plain by them and assented by Vs shall concern the settled continuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England established from which We shall not endure any variation or departing in the least degree That for the present though some differences have been ill raised We take comfort in this that all Clergie-men within Our Realm have alwaies most willingly subscribed to the Articles established which is an Argument to Vs that they all agree in the true usual literal meaning of the said Articles and that even in those curious Points in which the present differences lye men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them which is an argument again that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences which have for many hundred years in different times and places exercised the Church of Christ We will that all further curious search be laid aside and these disputes be shut up in Gods Promises as they be generally set forth unto Vs in holy Scriptures and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them And that no man hereafter shall either Print or Preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof And shall not put his own sense or Coment to be the meaning of the Article but shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense That if any Publick Reader in either Our Vniversities or any Head or Master of a Colledge or any other person respectively in either of them shall affix any new sense to any Article or shall publickly read determine or hold any publick Disputation or suffer any such to be held either way in either the Vniversities or Colledges respectively or if any Divine in the Vniversities shall Preach or Print any thing either way other than is established in Convocation with Our Royal Assent He or they the Offenders shall be liable to Our displeasure and the Churches Censure in Our Commission Ecclesiastical as well as any other and We will see there shall be due execution upon them No sooner were the Articles published with this Declaration but infinite were the clamours which were raised against it by those of the Calvinian Party Many exclaimed against it for the depths of Satan some for a Iesuitical Plot to subvert the Gospel For what else could it aim at as they gave it out but under colour of silencing the disputes on either side to give incouragement and opportunity to Arminians here to sow their tears and propagate their erroneous Doctrines And what effects could it produce but the suppressing of all Orthodox Books the discouraging of all godly and painful Ministers thereby deteâ—red from preaching the most comfortable Doctrines of mans election unto life The Arminians in the mean time gathering strength and going on securely to the end they aimed at And to give the better colour to these suspitions a Letter is dispersed abroad pretended to be written to the Rector of the Jesuites in Bruxells the chief City of Brabant In which the Writers lets him know with what care and cunning they had planted â—ere that Soveraign drug Arminianism which they hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresies and that it begin to flourish and bear fruit already That for the better preventing of the Puritans the Arminians had lockt up the Dukes ears c. with much of the like impudent stuff which no sober man did otherwise look on than a piece of Gullery Upon which grounds a Petition was designed for his Sacred Majesty by some of the Calvinian Party in and about the City of London For the revoking of the said Declaration by which they were deterred as the matter was handled from preaching the saving Doctrines of Gods Free Grace in Election and Predestination And this say they had brought them into a very great straight either or incurring Gods heavy displeasure if they did not faithfully discharge their Embassage in declaring the whole Counsel of God or the danger of being censured as violaters of his Majesties said Act if they preacht those constant Doctrines of our Church and confuted the opposite Pelagian and Arminian Heresies both preached and Printed boldly without fear of censure And thereupon they pray on their bended knees that his gracious Majesty would take into his Princely consideration the forenamed Evils and Grievances under which they groaned and as a wise Physician prescribe and apply such speedy Remedies as may both cure the present Maladies and secure the peace of Church and Common-wealth from all those Plagues which their Neighbours had not a little felt and more may fear if the Council of his Majesties Father to the States of the United Provinces were not better followed But this Petition being stopt before it came to the King they found more countenance from the Commons in the next Parliamentary meeting than they were like to have found at the hands of his Majesty For the Commons conceiving they had power to declare Religion as well as Law and they had much alike in both they voted this Anti-Declaration to be published in the name of that House viz. We the Commons now assembled in Parliament do claim profess and avow for truth the sense of the Articles of Religion which were established in Parliament the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth which by the publick Acts of the Church of England and the general and currant exposition of the Writers of our Church have been delivered to us and we
Foreign Title exercised all manner of Episcopal Jurisdiction in the Church of England And on the other side Archbishop Abbot a great Confident of the Popular Party in the House of Commons is sent for to the Court about Christmas and from out of his Barge received by the Archbishop of York and the Earl of Dorset by them accompanied to the King who giving him his Hand to kiss enjoined him not to fail the Council-Table twice a week And so far all was well beyond all exception but whether it were so in the two next also hath been much disputed Barnaby Potter Provost of Queens Colledge in Oxon. a thorow-pac'd Calvinian but otherwise his ancient Servant is preferr'd to the Bishoprick of Carlisle then vacant by the Translation of White to the See of Mountague's Book named Appello Caesarem must be called in also not in regard of any false Doctrine contained in it but for being the first cause of those Disputes and Differences which have since much troubled the quiet of the Church His Majesty hoping That the occasion being taken away men would no longer trouble themselves with such unnecessary Disputations Whether his Majesty did well in doing no more if the Book contained any false Doctrine in it or in doing so much if it were done only to please the Parliament I take not upon me to determine But certainly it never falleth out well with Christian Princes when they make Religion bend to Policy or think to gain their ends on men by doing such things as they are not plainly guided to by the Light of Conscience And so it hapned to his Majesty at this present time those two last Actions being looked on only as Tricks of King-craft done only out of a design for getting him more love in the hearts of his People than before he had Against the calling in of Mountague's Book it was objected commonly to his disadvantage That it was not done till three years after it came out till it had been questioned in three several Parliaments till all the Copies of it were dispersed and sold and then too That it was called in without any Censure either of the Author or his Doctrines That the Author had been punished with a very good Bishoprick and the Book seemingly discountenanced to no other end but to divert those of contrary perswasion from Writing or Acting any thing against it in the following Parliament And as for Potter what could he have done less in common gratitude than to prefer him to a Bishoprick for so many years Service as Potter in his time had done him both as Prince and King So true is that of the wise Historian When Princes once are in discredit with their Subjects as well their good Actions as their bad are all accounted Grievances For notwithstanding all these preparatory actions the Commons were resolved to begin at the same Point where before they ended The Parliament had been Prorogued as they were hammering a Remonstrance against Tonnage and Poundage which animated Chambers Rouls and some other Mercâ—ants to refuse the payment for which refusal some of their Goods was seised by Order from the Lord Treasurer Weston and some of them committed Prisoners by the Kings Command These matters so possessed their thoughts that a week was passed before they could resume their old care of Religion or think of Petitioning his Majesty for a Publick Fast but at last they fell upon them both To their Petition for a Fast not tendred to his Majesty till the thirtieth of Ianuary he returned this Answer the next day viz. That this Custom of Fasts at every Session was but lately begun That he was not so fully satisfied of the necessity of it at this time That notwithstanding for the avoiding of Questions and Jealousies he was pleased to grant them their Request with this Proviso That it should not hereafter be brought into President but on great occasions And finally That as for the form and times thereof he would advise with his Bishops and then return unto both Houses a particular Answer But so long it was before that Answer came unto them and so perverse were they in crossing with his Majesties Counsels that the Parliament was almost ended before the Fast was kept in London and Westminster and dissolved many days before it was to have been kept in the rest of the Kingdom And for Religion they insisted on it with such importunity that his Majesty could no longer dissemble his taking notice of it as a meer artifice and diversion to stave him off from being gratified in the Grant of Tonnage and Poundage which he so often press'd them to And thereupon he lets them know That he understood the cause of their delay in his business to be Religion of the preservation whereof none of them should have greater care than himself and that either it must be an Argument he wanted Power to preserve it which he thought no body would affirm or at the least That he was very ill counselled if it were in so much danger as they had reported This notwithstanding they proceed in their former way His Majesty had granted several Pardons to Mountague Cosens Manwaâ—ring and Sibthâ—rp before-mentioned These Pardons must be questioned and the men summoned to appear And Information is preferred by Iones against Mountague's Confirmation in the See of Chichester which after many disputes is referred to a Select Committee Complaint is made against Neile Bishop of Winton for for saying to some Divines of his Diocess That they must not Preach against Papists now as they had done formerly Marshall and Moor two Doctors in Divinity but such as had received some displeasures from him are brought in to prove it Upon him also it was charged That the Pardons of Mountague and Cosens were of his procuring Insomuch that Eliot pronounced positively That all the Dangers which they feared were contracted in the person of that Bishop and thereupon desired That a Motion might be made to his Majesty to leave him to the Iustice of that House Many Reports come flowing in to the Committee for Religion of turning Tables into Altars adoring towards or before them and standing up at the Gospels and the Gloria Patri which must be also taken into consideration The Articles of Lambeth are declared to be the Doctrines of this Church and all that did oppose them to be called in question Walker delivered a Petition from the Booksellers and Printers in complaint of the Restraint of Books written against Popery and Arminianism and the contrary allowed of by the only means of the Bishop of London and That divers of them had been Pursevanted for Printing of Orthodox Books and That the Licencing of Books was only to be restrained to the said Bishop and his Chaplains Hereupon followed a Debate amongst them about the Licencing of Books which having taken up some time was referred to the Committee also as the other was By these Embraceries the Committee
the Ministers there might by degrees prepare the People to such impressions of Conformity as his Majesty by the Council and Consent of the rest of the Bishops should graciously be pleased to imprint upon them But such ill luck his Majesty had with that stubborn Nation that this was look'd upon also as a general Grievance and must be thought to aim at no other end than Tyranny and Popery and what else they pleased We have almost done our work in Scotland and yet hear nothing all this while of the Bishop of London not that he did not go the Journey but that there was little to be done at his being there but to see and be seen And yet it was a Journey which brought him some access of Honour and gave him opportunity of making himself known to those of best Quality of that Kingdom He had been in Scotland with King Iames but then he waited only as a private Chaplain He is now looked upon as the third Bishop of England in Place and the greatest in Power a Counsellor of State and the Kings great Favorite He entred Scotland as a Privy-Counsellor of England only but returned thence as a Counsellor for that Kingdom also to which Office he was sworn on the fifteenth of Iune Nor did he shew himself less able in that Church than in the Council-Chamber being appointed by his Majesty to Preach before him on the last of that Month in which some question may be made how he pleased the Scots although it be out of question that he pleased the King The greatest part of the following Iuly was spent in visiting the Country and taking a view of the chief Cities and most remarkable Parts and Places of it Which having seen he made a Posting Journey to the Queen at Greenwich whither he came on Saturday the twentieth of Iuly crossing the Water at Blackwall and looking towards London from no nearer distance But in this Act he laid aside the Majesty of his Predecessors especially of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory of whom it was observed That she did very seldom end any of her Summer Progresses but she would wheel about to some end of London to make her passage to Whitehall thorow some part of the City not only requiring the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Robes and Chains of Gold to come forth to meet her but the several Companies of the City to attend solemnly in their Formalities as she went along By means whereof she did not only preserve that Majesty which did belong to a Queen of England but kept the Citizens and consequently all the Subjects in a reverent Estimation and Opinion of her She used the like Arts also in keeping up the Majesty of the Crown and Service of the City in the Reception and bringing in of Foreign Embassadors who if they came to London by Water were met at Gravesend by the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and Companies in their several Barges and in that Solemn manner conducted unto such Stairs by the Water side as were nearest to the Lodgings provided for them But if they were to come by Land they were met in the like sort at Shooters-Hill by the Mayor and Aldermen and thence conducted to their Lodgings the Companies waiting in the Streets in their several Habits The like she used also in celebrating the Obsequies of all Christian Kings whether Popish or Protestant with whom she was in Correspondence performed in such a Solemn and Magnificent manner that it preserved her in the estimation of all Foreign Princes though differing in Religion from her besides the great contentment which the People took in those Royal Pomps Some other Arts she had of preserving Majesty and keeping distance with her People yet was so popular withal when she saw her time that never Majesty and Popularity were so matched together But these being laid aside by King Iames who brooked neither of them and not resumed by King Charles who loved them not much more than his Father did there followed first a neglect of their Persons which Majesty would have made more Sacred and afterwards a mislike of their Government which a little Popularity would have made more grateful Laud having no such cause of hastning homewards returned not to his House at Fulham till the twenty sixth of the same Month But he came time enough to hear the news of Abbot's Sickness and within few days after of his Death which hapned on Sunday morning the fourth of August and was presently signified to the King being â—hen at Greenwich A man he was that had tasted both of good and ill Fortune in extremes affirmed by the Church Historian for I shall only speak him in the words of others to be a grave man in his Conversation and unblameable in his Life but said withal to have been carried with non amavit gentem nostram forsaking the Birds of his own feather to fly with others and generally favouring the Laity above the Clergie in all Cases which were brought before him Conceived by one of our State Historians to be too facil and yielding in the exercising of his Function by whom it also affirmed That his extraordinary remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremony seemed to resolve those legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and to lead in such an habit of Inconformity as the future reduction of those tender-conscienc'd men to long discontinued Obedience was interpreted an Innovation By the first Character we find what made him acceptable amongst the Gentry by the last what made him grateful to the Puritan in favour of which men he took so little care of the great Trust committed to him and gave them so many opportunities of increasing both in Power and Numbers that to stop tâ—em in their full career it was found necessary to suspend him from his Metropolitical Jurisdiction as before was noted It is reported That as Prince Henry his Majesty then Duke of Yorke Archbishop Abbot with many of the Nobility were waiting in the Privy Chamber for the coming out of King Iames the Prince to put a jest on the Duke his Brother took the Archbishops Square Cap out of his hands and put it on his Brothers head telling him that if he continued a good Boy and followed his Book he would one day make him Archbishop of Canterbury Which the Child took in such disdain that he threw the Cap upon the ground and trampled it under his feet not being without much difficulty and some force taken off from that eagerness This though first it was not otherwise beheld than as an Act of Childish Passion yet when his Brother Prince Henry died and that he was Heir apparent to the Crown it was taken up by many zealous Church-men for some ill presage unto the Hierarchy of Bishops the overthrow whereof by his Act and Power did seem to be fore-signified by it But as
and not Absolved before he make a publick Revocation of his Error Such was the Canon passed in this Convocation for the approbation and reception of the Articles of the Church of England Which Canon was no sooner passed confirmed and published but the Primate and his Party saw the danger which they had cast themselves into by their inadvertency and found too late That by receiving and approving the English Articles they had abrogated and repealed the Irish. To salve this sore it concerned them to bestir themselves with their utmost diligence and so accordingly they did For first the Primate and some Bishops of his opinions required subscription to the Articles of both Churches of all such as came to be ordained at the next Ordination But it went no further than the next for if the Papists made it a matter of Derision to have three Confessions in the three Churches of his Majesties Kingdoms How much more matter must it give them of scorn and laughter that there should be two different Confessions in the same Church and both subscribed unto but as one and the same The Primate next applies himself to the Lord Deputy beseeching him that the former Articles might receive a new Ratification by Act of Parliament for preventing all innovations in the Religion there established But he found but little comfort there the Lord Deputy threatning to cause the said Confession to be burnt by the hand of the hangman if at the least the Scots Commissioners may be believed amongst whose Articles against him I find this for one Finding no better hopes on that side of the Sea he dispatcheth his Letters of Advice to his Friends in England one to an Honourable Person amongst the rest assuring them that though by a Canon passed in that Convocation they had received and approved the Articles of England yet that the Articlers of Ireland were ever called in might well be reckoned for a fancy The like affirmed in a Certificate made by Bernard and Pullen two Members of the Lower House in this Convocation where it is said That whosoever do aver that the said Articles were abolished are grosly mistaken and have abused the said Convocation in delivering so manifest an untruth And to back this another Certificate must be gained from one who comes commended to us under the Title of a most eminent judicious and learned person who having considered of the matter Conceives that both Confessions were consistent and that the Act of the Synod was not a Revocation of the Irish Articles but an approbation of the English as agreeing with them But all this would not serve the turn or save those Articles from being brought under a Repeal by the present Canon For first it appeareth by the Canon That they did not only approve but receive the Articles of the Church of England Their approbation of them had they gone no further had been a sufficient manifestation of their agreement with the Church of England in the Confession of the same Protestant Religion But their receiving of the same doth intimate a superinducing of them upon the other and is equivalent both in Fact and Law to the Repealing of the old For otherwise St. Paul must needs be out in the Rules of Logick when he proved the Abrogating of the old Covenant by the superinduction of a new For having affirmed that God by speaking of a New Covenant had antiquated and made void the first or made the first old as our English read it he adds immediatly That that which is old decayeth and is ready to vanish away that is to say as Diodati descants on it The old being disanulled by the new there must necessarily follow the abolishment of its use and practice Nor find they any other abrogation of the Iewish Sabbath then by the superinducing of the Lords day for the day of worship By means whereof the Sabbath was lessened in authority and reputation by little and little and in short time was absolutely laid aside in the Church of Christ the fourth Commandement by which it was at first ordained being still in force So then according to these grounds the Articles of Ireland were virtually though not formally abrogated or else it must be granted that there were two Confessions in the same one Church different both in form and matter and contrary in some points unto one another which would have been so far from creating an uniformity between the Churches in the concernments of Religion that it would have raised a greater disagreement within Ireland it self than was before between the Churches of both Kingdoms And certainly the gaining of this point did much advantage the Archbishop conducing visibly to the promotion of his ends and Counsels in making the Irish Clergy subject to the two Declarations and accountable for their breaking and neglect thereof that is to say his Majesties Declaration about Lawful Sports and that prefixt before the book of Articles for appeasing Controversies Take for a farewell this acknowledgment of a late Historian speaking as well the sense of others as his own A Convocation concurrent with a Parliament was called saith he and kept at Dublin in Ireland wherein the thirty nine Articles of the Church of England were received in Ireland for all to subscribe unto It was adjudged fit seeing that Kingdom complies with England in the Civil Government it should also conform thereunto in matters of Religion And thereupon he thus concludes That in the mean time the Irish Articles concluded formerly in a Synod 1616. mistaken for 1615. wherein Arminianism was condemned in terminis terminantibus and the observation of the Lords day resolved Iure divino were utterly excluded But leaving Ireland to the care of the Lord Deputy and the Bishop of Derry who under him had the chief managing of the affairs of that Church let us see how the new Archbishop proceeds in England where he had so many plows going at once too many as it after proved to work well together For not thinking he had done enough in order to the peace and uniformity of the Church of England by taking care for it here at home his thoughts transported him with the like affection to preserve it from neglect abroad To which end he had offered some considerations to the Lords of the Council as before was said Anno 1622. relating to the regulation of Gods publick Worship amongst the English Factories and Regiments beyond the Seas and the reducing of the French and Dutch Churches settled in divers parts of this Realm unto some conformity In reference to the first he had not sate long in the Chaire of Canterbury when he procured an Order from the Lords of the Council bearing date Octob. 1. 1633. By which their English Churches and Regiments in Holland and afterwards by degrees in all other Foreign parts and plantations were required strictly to observe the English Liturgie with all the Rites and Ceremonies prescribed in it
the great Cardinal Richelieu to this effect viz. That if a King of England who was a Protestant would not permit two Disciplines in his Kingdom why should a King of France a Papist permit two Religions Great workings had been in the Court upon this occasion though all which was effected by it was but the present qualification of the second Injunction His Majesty on good Reason of State insisting so strongly on the first that it could not be altered But as for the second Injunction it was qualified thus viz. That the Ministers and all others of the French and Dutch Congregations which are not Natives and born Subjects to the Kings Majesty or any other Stranger that shall come over to them while they remain Strangers may have and use their own Discipline as formerly they have done yet it is thought fit that the English Liturgie should be Translated into the French and Dutch for the better fitting of their Children to the English Government But before the Injunction thus qualified could be sent to Canterbury the Mayor and Brethren of that City were put upon a Petition in their behalf insisting amongst other things on the great Charge which would fall upon them if the relief of the poor French which formerly had been maintained on the common Purse of that Church should be cast upon the several Parishes and the great want of Work which would happen to their own Poor in that City if the Manufactures of the French should be discontinued To which Petition they received a favourable Answer in respect of themselves but without any alteration of his Graces purpose in such other points of it as concerned those Churches A Temperament was also used in regard of the Ministers which did Officiate in those Churches it being condescended to on the suit of their Deputies That such of their Ministers as were English born should continue in their Place and Ministry as in former times but that hereafter none should be admitted to be Ministers in their Congregations but such as were Strangers Which Condescensions notwithstanding It was directed by the Coetus of the London Churches That by no means the Kentish Foreigners should publish the said Injunctions in their Congregations and that if the prosecution of them should be strictly urged they would then think upon some other course to bear of that blow And by this Tergiversation they gained so much time that the final Decree was not passed upon them till the 26th of September 1635. when to the former Injunction they found this Clause or Proviso added viz. That the Natives should continue to contribute to the maintenance of their Ministry and the Poor of their Church for the subsisting thereof and that an Order should be obtained from his Majesty if it were desired to maintain them in their Manufactures against all such as should endeavour to molest them by Informations Some time was spent about the publishing of this Decree the Ministers and Elders of those Churches refusing to act any thing in it But at the last it was published in the French Church at Canterbury by one of their Notaries and in Sandwich by the Chanter or Clerk of the Congregation with Order to the Ministers and Churchwardens of the several Parishes to take notice of such of the Natives as resorted not diligently to their Parish Churches This proved a leading Case to all the other French and Dutch Churches on this side of the Seas though they opposed it what they could For no sooner was the News of these Injunctions first brought to Norwich when a Remonstrance was presented to Corbet who was then Bishop of that Diocess and by him transmitted to the Archbishop in which they had expressed such Reasons against the tenour of the same as we have met with formerly in this Narration But the Archbishops Visitation of that Diocess in the year next following Anno 1635. put an end to that business the Injunction being published in the Churches of Strangers in that City before any publication of them had been made in Canterbury Nor was the like done only in all the Churches of Strangers in the Province of Canterbury but in those of York where the Archbishop kept them to a harder Diet for having seen what had been done by Brent in his Visitation and having no such powerful Sollicitors as the Coetus of the London Churches to take off his edge he denied them the Exercise of any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of their own injoins them the use of the English Liturgie in the French Tongue with Obedience to all the Laws and Ordinances of the Church of England to receive the Sacrament once a year in the Church of the Parish where they dwell and to perform all their Christenings Marriages and Burials there or else none of their Congregations to be permitted But notwithstanding all this care of the Metropolitans the business went forward more or less as the Ministers and Church-wardens stood affected in their several Parishes And in most Parishes the Ministers and Church-wardens were so well pleased with that indecency which they had amongst them in respect of any Superiors in Church-concernments to whom they might be made accountable for Life or Doctrine that generally they wish'd themselves in the same condition And being freed from their greatest fear of having the Poor of those Churches cast upon them in their several Parishes they seemed not much sollicitous whether they came to the Church or not to hear the Sermons receive the Sacraments or perform any other part of Publick Worship especially if they were not scrupulous in paying to the Minister his accustomed Dues and yielding to such Rates and Taxes as the Church-wardens laid upon them for Parochial uses If any Minister began to look too strictly to them they would find some means to take him off by Gifts and Presents or by some powerful Letter from some of the Grandees residing in London and sometimes from a neighbouring Justice whose displeasure must not be incurred And that they might not want encouragement to stand it out as long as they could the leading men of the Genevian Faction in most parts of the Realm did secretly sollicite them not to be too forwards in conforming to the said Injunctions assuring them of such Assistances as might save them harmless and flattering them with this Opinion of themselves That the Liberty of the Gospel and the most desirable Freedom of the Church from Episcopal Tyranny depended chiefly on their Courage and Resolution What was done afterwards in pursuance of the said Injunctions shall be told elsewhere all which Particulars I have laid together that the Proceedings of his Grace in this weighty business so much calumniated and defamed might be presented to the Reader without interruption It was once said by Telesinus to Caj Marius That he did well to scoure the Country but Italy would never want Wolves so long as Rome continued so fit a Forest to afford them shelter In like manner the
of particular Churches and of some Times only And 3. It in Points of Doctrine Whether such Points have been determined oâ— before in a General Council or in Particular Councils universally received and countenanced or are to be defined de novo on emergent Controversies And these Distinctions being thus laid I shall Answer briefly 1. If the things to be reformed be either Corruptions in Manners or neglect of Publick Duties to Almighty God Abuses either in Government or the Parties governing the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority The Clergy are beholden to him if he takes any of them along with him when he goes about it And if the Times should be so bad that either the whole body of the Clergy or any though the greatest part thereof should oppose him in it he may go forwards notwithstanding punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a Work and compelling others And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem and so inseparably annexed that Kings could be no longer Kings iâ— it were denied them And on the other side if the Reformation be in Points oâ— Doctrine and in such Points of Doctrine as have not been before defined or not defined in form and manner as before laid down the King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy though never so well studied in the Point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted whose Acts being Ratified by the King bind not alone the rest of the Clergy in whose name they Voted but all the residue of the Subjects of what sort soever who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions But if the thing to be Reformed be a matter practical we are to look into the usage of the Primitive Times And if the Practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church though intermitted for a Time and by Time corrupted the King consulting with so many of his Bishops and others of his most able Clergy as he thinks â—it to call unto him and having their Consent and Direction in it may in the case of intermission revive such Practice and in the case of corruption and degeneration restore it to its Primitive and Original Lustre Now that there should be Liturgies for the use of the Church And that those Liturgies should be Celebrated in a Language understood by the People That in those Liturgies there should be some prescribed Forms for Giving the Communion in both Kinds for Baptizing Infants for the reverent Celebration of Marriage performing the 〈◊〉 Office to the Sick and the decent Burial of the Dead as also for set Fasts and appointed Festivals hath been a thing of Primitive and General Practice in the best times of the Church And being such though intermitted and corrupted as before is said the King advising with his Bishops and other Church-men though not in a Synodical way may cause the same to be revised and revived and having fitted them to Edification and encrease of Piety either commend them to the Church by his sole Authority or else impose them on the People under certain Penalties by his Power in Parliament The Kingdom of Heaven said the Reverend Isidore of Sevil doth many times receive increase from these Earthly Kingdoms in nothing more than by regulating and well ordering of Gods Publick Worship Add hereunto what was before alledged for passing the Canons in the same way and then we have the sum of that which was and probably might have been pleaded in defence hereof The prosecution of this Liturgie on the one side and the exaction of those Publick Orders on the other kindled such fires in the breasts of some of the Puritan Faction that presently they brake out into open Flames For first the Scots scattered abroad a virulent and seditioâ—s Libel in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Author was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was Legally convicted and condemned of Treason but pardoned by the Kings great Goodness and by that Pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following And as the English had Scotized in all their Practises by railing threatning and stirring up of Sedition for bringing in the Genevian Discipline in Queen Elizabeths Time so they resolve to follow their Example now Bastwick a Doctor of Physick the second part of Leighton first leads the Dance beginning with a Pestilent Pamphlet called Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium maliciously venomous against the Bishops their Function Actions and Proceedings But this not being likely to do much hurt amongst the People because writ in Latine he seconds it with another which he called his Litany in the English Tongue A Piece so silly and contemptible that nothing but the Sin and Malice which appeared in every line thereof could possibly have preserved it from being ridiculous Prynne follows next and publisheth two Books at once or one immediately on the other one of these called The Quench-Coal in answer unto that called A Coal from the Altar against placing the Communion-Table Altar-wise The other named The Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus against the Apostolical Institution of Diocesan Bishops But that which was entituled to him by the name of a Libel was The News from Ipswich intended chiefly against Wren then Bishop of Norwich who had taken up his dwelling in that Town as before is said but falling as scandalously foul on the Archbishop himself and some of the other Bishops also and such as acted under them in the present Service For there he descants very trimly as he conceived on the Archbishop himself with his Arch-Piety Arch-Charity Arch-Agent for the Devil that Beelzebub himself had been Archbishop and the like to those a most triumphant Arch indeed to adorn his victories With like reproach he falls on the Bishops generally calling them Luciferian Lord Bishops execrable Traitors devouring Wolves with many other odious names not fit to be used by a Christian and more particularly on Wren telling us That in all Queen Maries times no such havock was made in so short a time of the faithful Ministers of God in any part nay in the whole Land than had been made in his Diocess And then he adds with equal Charity and Truth That Corbet Chancellor to this Bishop had threatned one or two godly Ministers with pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read his Majesties Declaration about lawful Sports More of this dish I could have carved but that this may serve sufficiently for a taste of the whole But the great Master-piece of mischief was set out by Burton so often mentioned before who preaching on the fifth of November in his own Parish
but slight of substance counterfeit stuff most of it and wrought with so much fraud and falshood that there is hardly one true stitch in all that work from the very beginning to the end Hardly one testimony or authority in the whole Discourse which is any way material to the point in hand but is as true and truly cited as that the book it self was writ long ago in answer unto D. Coale of Queen Maries daies The King he tacitely upbraides with the unfortunacies of his Reign by Deaths and Plagues the Governours of the Church with carrying all things by strong hand rather by Canon-shot than by Canon Law The Bishop of Norwich he compares as before was noted to a Wren mounted on the feathers of an Eagle and fall upon his Adversary with as foule a mouth as Burton doth upon the Prelates the Parable betwixt him and Burton being very well fitted as appears by the Preface to the Ministers of Lincoln Diocess in the Answer to him Obliquely and upon the by he hath some glancings against bowing at the name of Iesus Adoring toward the East and Praying according to the Canon and makes the transposing of the Table to the place where the Altar stood to be an Introduction for ushering in the whole body or Popery Which Eleusinian Doctrine for so he calleth it though these new Reformers for fear of so many Laws and Canons dare not apparently profess yet saith he they prepare and lay grounds for it that the out-works of Religion being taken in they may in time have a bout with the Fort it self To these two Books his Majesty thought fit that some present Answer should be made appointing the same hand for both which had writ the History of the Sabbath The one being absolutely destructive of the uniformity in placing the Communion Table which was then in hand The other labouring to create a general hatred unto all the Bishops branding their persons blasting their Counsels and decrying the Function And hard it was to say whether of the two would have proved more mischievous if they were not seasonably prevented The Answer unto Burton was first commanded and prepared That to the Lincoln Minister though afterwards enjoyned was the first that was published This of the two the subtler and more curious piece exceedingly cried up when it first came out the disaffection of the times and subject matter of the Book and the Religious estimation which was had of the Author concurring altogether to advance the Reputation of it to the very highest sold for four shillings at the first when conceived unanswerable but within one month after the coming out of the Answer which was upon the twentieth of May brought to less than one The Answer published by the name of Antidotum Lincolniense with reference to the Licencer and Author of the Holy Table The publishing of the other was delayed upon this occasion A Resolution had been taken by command of his Majesty to proceed against the Triumvirate of Libellers as one fitly calls them to a publick Censure which was like to make much noise amongst the ignorant People It was thought fit by the Prudent Council of Queen Elizabeth upon the execution of some Priests and Jesuits that an Apology should be published by the name of Iustitia Britannica to vindicate the publick Justice of the State from such aspersions as by the Tongues and Pens of malicious persons should be laid upon it And on the like prudential grounds it was thought expedient that an answer should be made to the book which seemed most material and being so made should be kept in readiness till the execution of the Sentence to the end that the people might be satisfied as well in the greatness of the Crimes as the necessity and justice of the Punishment inflicted upon one of the Principals by whom a judgment might be made of all the rest But the Censure being deferred from Easter until Midsummer Term the Answer lay dormant all the while at Lambeth in the hands of the Licencer and was then published by the name of A briefe and moderate Answer to the seditious and scandalous challenges of H. B. c. Two other Books were also published about that time the one about the name and situation of the Communion Table which was called Altare Christianum writ by one Pâ—cklington then beneficed in Bedfordshire and seconded by a Chappel Determination of the well studied Ioseph Mede The other against Burton by name published by Dow of Basell in Sussex under the Title of Innovations unjustly charged c. And so much for the Pen Combates managed on both sides in the present Controversies But whilst these things were in agitation there hapned toward the end of this year such an Alteration in the Court as began to make no less noise than the rest before It had been an ancient custome in the Court of England to have three Sermons every week in the time of Lent Two of them preached on Wednesdaies and Fridaies the third in the open preaching place near the Council Chamber on Sundaies in the Afternoon And so it continued till King Iames came to this Crown Who having upon Tuesday the fifth of August escapt the hands and treasons of the Earl of Gowrie took up a pious resolution not only of keeping the Anniversary of that day for a publick Festival in all his Dominions but of having a Sermon and other divine Offices every Tuesday throughout the year This custome he began in Scotland and brought it with him into the Court of England and thereupon translated one of the Lent Sermons from Wednesday to Tuesday This Innovation in the Court where before there were no Sermons out of Lent but on Sundaies only came in short time to have a very strong Influence upon the Country giving example and defence to such Lectures and Sermons on the working daies as frequently were appointed and continued in most Corporations and many other Market Towns in all parts of the Kingdom In which respect it was upon the point of being laid aside at the Court on the death of that King in reference to whose particular concernments it was taken up and therefore his Successor not obliged to the observation But then withall it was considered that the new King had married with a Lady of the Roman Religion that he was ingaged in a War with Spain which could not be carried on without help from the Parliament wherein the Puritan Party had appeared to be very powerful The discontinuing of that Sermon in this conjuncture might have been looked on in the King as the want of zeal toward the preaching of the Gospel and a strong tendency in him to the Religion of the Church of Rome and a betraying of the Court to Ignorance and Superstition by depriving them of such necessary means of their Instruction Upon these grounds it stood as before it did as well in the holy time of Lent as in other Weeks
But now Laud being Archbishop of Canterbury and Wren Dean of the Chappel it was resolved to move his Majesty that the Lent Sermons might be preached on Wednesdaies as they had been Anciently To which his Majesty condescending and the Bill of Lent-Preachers being drawn accordingly it was first muttered secretly and afterwards made a publick clamour that this was one of the Archbishops Artifices a trick devised for putting down the Tuesday Sermons of which you should never hear more when this Lent was over Which Cry growing lowder and lowder as the Lent continued was suddenly hush'd and stilled again on the Easter Tuesday when they saw the Preacher in the Pulpit as at other times So usual is it with some men to be afraid of their own shadows and terrified with fears of their own devising This Interruption thus past over I shall unwillingly resume my former Argument concerning Bastwick and the rest of his fellow-Criminals who being called unto their Answer used so many delays that the Case could not come to Sentence before Midsomer Term. Some Answers they had drawn but they were so Libellous and full of scandal that no Counsellor could be found to put his hand to them according to the course of that Court Instead whereof they exhibited a cross Bill against Canterbury and his Confederates as they called them charging them with the greatest part of those Reproaches which had been made the subject-matter of their former Libels which being signed by no hands but their own and tendred so to the Lord Keeper was by him rejected and themselves taken pro confessis their obstinacy in not answering in due form of Law being generally looked on by the Court as a self-conviction On the fourteenth of Iune they received their Sentence which briefly was to this effect Prynne to be fined 5000 l. to the King to lose the remainder of his ears in the Pillory to be branded on both cheeks with the Letters S. L. for a Schismatical Libeller and to be perpetually imprisoned in Carnarvan Castle Bastwick and Burton condemned in the like Fine of 5000 l. to be Pilloried and lose their Ears the first to be imprisoned in the Castle of Lanceston in Cornwal and the second in the Castle of Lancaster On the thirtieth of the same Month Burton being first degraded of his Ministry in the High-Commission they were brought into the Palace-yard of Westminster to receive their punishment not executed on them with such great severity as was injuriously given out But being executed howsoever it was a great trouble to the spirits of many very moderate and well-meaning men to see the three most Eminent Professions in all the World Divinity Law and Physick to be so wretchedly dishonoured in the Persons of the Malefactors as was observed by the Archbishop himself in his Epistle to the King Which part of the Punishment being inflicted they were conveyed with care and safety to their several Prisons the People either foolishly or factiously resorting to them as they passed and seeming to bemoan their Sufferings as unjustly Rigorous And such a haunt there was to the several Castles to which they were condemned of purpose for preventing all Intelligence and Correspondence to be held between them that the State found it necessary to remove them further Prynne to the Castle of Mont Orgueil in the Isle of Iersey Burton to Castle-Cornet in the Road of Guernsey and Bastwick to St. Maries Castle in the Isle of Silly which last remembreth me of the like Confinement to which Instantius a professed Priscilianist a very near Kinsman of the English Puritan had been condemned by the Justice of the Primitive Times At the pronouncing of this Sentence the Archbishop made a long and elaborate Speech in vindication of himself and the rest of the Bishops from any Design to bring in Popery or innovating in the Government and Forms of Worship here by Law established He made his Introduction to it in a brief Discourse touching the nature of the Crime shewing how odious a thing it was to think of defending Religion in the way of Libels a thing not used by any of the Primitive Christians in the greatest heats of Persecution and then professing for his own part That he had done nothing as a Bishop but with a sincere intention for the good Government and Honour of the Church of England and the maintenance of the Orthodox Truth and Religion professed and established in it adding withal That nothing but his Care of reducing the Church into Order in the External Worship of God and the settling of it on the Rules of its first Reformation had raised this Storm against himself and the rest of the Bishops for which alone they stood accused of Innovations by those which were the greatest Innovators in the Christian World He spake next touching the Calling of Bishops which he maintained to be Iure Divino though not all the Adjuncts of that Calling averring further That from the time of the Apostles to the days of Calvin the Government of the Church was by Bishops only Lay-Elders being never heard of which Claim by Divine Right derogateth not from the King either in Right or Power as the Libellers made it no more than the Calling of the Presbyters by the same Right could be thought to do in regard they exercised not any Iurisdiction in the Kings Dominions but with his Licence for so doing Or were it otherwise yet that the Bishops stood in England in as good a case as the present Laws could make them and therefore they that Libelled against them Libelled against the King and State by the Laws whereoâ— they were established and consequently could aim at no other end than the stirring of Sedition amongst the People As touching the design of bringing in Popery by which Artifice they chiefly hoped to inflame the People he first acquitted the King of it by shewing his sincerity and constancy in his Religion exemplified by his Carriage in Spain where he wanted no temptations to draw him from it and his Deportment since in England in which â—e had so often declared a settled Resolution to maintain the same Or were it otherwise and that the King had any mind to change Religion he must seek for other Instruments than himself to effect that purpose most humbly thanking God That as yet he knew not how to serve any Man against the Truth of Christ so â—e hoped he should never learn professing further for the satisfaction of all which heard him That he knew of no plot nor purpose of altering the Religion here established and that for his own part he had ever been far from attempting any thing which might be truly said to tend that way in the least degree to both which he was ready to take his Oath Which said in general he briefly touch'd on those Innovations which in those Libels had been charged on him and the rest of the Bishops in order unto that Design To the
the holy Table being appointed to be placed where the Altar stood by the Queens Injunctions Anno 1559. and that position justified by an order of Dr. Davenant Bishop of Sarum of which we have already spoken whom the Libellers themselves were not like to accuse for a man that purposed the ushering in or advancing of Popery The setting of a Raile before it or about it howsoever placed was only for avoiding of Prophanation and for that cause justifiable As for the reading of the Second or Communion Service at the holy Table it was no more than what had formerly been used in many places to his own remembrance first altered in those Churches where the Emissaries of that Faction came to preach and therefore the Innovation to be laid on them Secondly That it is not only fit and proper for that part of the Divine Service to be read at the Communion Table but that it is required so to be by the Rules and Rubricks of the Church It being said in the first Rubrick after the Communion that on the Holy Daies if there be no Communion all shall be read which is appointed at the Communion and in the last Rubrick before the Communion that the Minister standing at the North side of the holy Table shall say the Lords Prayer with that which follows And finally as to that of bowing towards it at their first entrance in the Church or approaches to it it is answered that it was agreeable to the Practice of Moses David Hezekiah recorded in the holy Scriptures and that Venite Adoremus O come let us worship and fall down c. was used constantly in the beginning of the Ancient Liturgies and preserved in the beginning of ours in England and therefore that the people may as well refuse to come as at their coming not to Worship he added that by the Statutes of the noble Order of St. George called the Garter the Knights whereof were bound to do their Reverence versus Altare toward the Altar that it had so continued ever since the time of King Henry the fifth that if there were any Idolatry in it neither Queen Elizabeth who drove out Popery nor King Iames who kept out Popery would have suffered it to remain in Practice and in a word that if it were Gods Worship and not Idolatry he ought to do it as well as they but if it were Idolatry and no Worship of God they ought to do it no more than he But the fourteenth and last charge which most concerned him and the rest of the Bishops to make answer to was the forging of a new Article of Religion brought from Rome to justifie their proceedings and Innovations and foysting it to the beginning of the twentieth Article The Clause pretended to be added is That the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of â—aith because not found say they in the Latine or English Articles of King Edward the sixth or Queen Elizabeth ratified by Parliament adding that if to forge a Will or Writing be censurable in the Star-Chamber though it be but a wrong to a Private man how much more should the forgery of an Article of Religion be censured there which is a wrong to the whole Church And unto this he answered that the Articles made in the time oâ— King Edward the sixth were not now in force and therefore not material whether that Clause be in or out that in the Articles as they passed in Queen Elizabeths time this Clause was to be found in the English Edition of the year 1612. of the year 1605. of the year 1593. and in Latine in the year 1563. being one of the first Printed Copies after the Articles had been agreed on in the Convocation that it was to be found in the same terms in the Records of Convocation Anno 1562. as he proved by a Certificate under the hand of a publick Notary and therefore finally that no such forgery in adding that Clause unto that Article had been committed by the Prelates to serve their own turns by gaining any power to the Church but that the said Clause had been razed out by some of those men or some of that Faction to weaken the just power of the Church and to serve their own These Innovations thus passed over and discharged he signifies unto their Lordships That some other Charges were remaining in matter of Doctrine that they should presently be answered justo volumine to satisfie all well-minded people and that when Burtons Book was answered his Book he said but not his raylings none of the rest should be answered either by him or by his care leaving that Court to find a way for stopping the mouths of such Libellers or else for him they should raile on as long as they listed And thus beginning to draw toward an end he declares himself to be in the same case with St. Cyprian then Bishop of Carthage bitterly railed upon by a pack of Schismaticks and yet conceiving himself bound which he made his own Resolution also not to answer them with the like Levities or Revilings but to write and speak only as becomes a Priest of God that by Gods grace the Reproaches of such men should not make him faint or start aside either from the right way in matter of Practice or à certa Regula from the certain Rule of Faith Which said and craving pardon of their Lordships for his necessary length he thanks them for their just and honourable censure of those men in their unanimous dislike of them and defence of the Church Makes his excuse from passing any censure of them in regard the business had some reflection on himself and so leaves them to Gods mercy and the Kings Justice Thus have I acted Phocion's part in cutting short the long and well-studied Speech of this grave and Eloquent Demosthenes which I have been the more willing to reduce to so brief an Abstract that the Reader may perceive without the least loss of time and labour on what weak grounds the Puritan Faction raised their outcry against Innovations and what poor trifles many of those Innovations were against which they clamoured and cried out But for the Speech in its full length as it gave great satisfaction unto all that heard it so by his Majesties Command it was afterwards Printed for giving the like satisfaction to all those who should please to read it In obedience unto which Command he caused the said Speech to be Printed and Published although he was not ignorant as he declares in his Epistle to the King that many things while they are spoken and pass by the ears but once give great content which when they come to the eyes of men and their open scanning may lie open to some exceptions And so it proved in the event for though the Speech was highly magnified as it came from his mouth yet it had not been long published in Print when it was encountred with
their Religion and therefore was pleased to declare That as he abhorreth all Superstitions of Popery so he would be most careful that nothing should be allowed within his Dominions but that which should most tend to the Advancement of the true Religion as it was presently professed within his Ancient Kingdom of Scotland and that nothing was nor should be done therein against the laudable Laws of that his Native Kingdom The Rioters perceived by this Proclamation that the King was more afraid than hurt And seeing him begin to shrink they resolved to put so many fears upon him one after another as in the end might fashion him to their desires First therefore they began with a new Petition not of a rude Multitude but of Noblemen Barons Ministers Burgesses and Commons the very Flower of the whole Nation against the Liturgie and Canons This Petition being sent to the Courts could do no less and it did no more than produce another Proclamation in Reply to the Substance of it some Menaces being intermingled but sweetned in the close to give them the better relish His Majesty first lets them know the Piety of his Intent in appointing the Liturgie assuring them That he had no other end in it than the maintenance of the true Religion there already professed and the beating down of all Superstition That nothing passed in the said Book but what was seen and approved by himself before the same was either divulged or printed and that he was assured That the Book it self would be a very ready means to preserve the Religion there professed of which he doubted not to give them satisfaction in his own time Which said he lets them know That such as had Assembled for subscribing the said Petition had made themselves liable to his highest Censures both in Life and Fortune That notwithstanding he was pleased to dispence with the errour upon a confidence that it proceeded rather from a preposterous Zeal than a disaffection to Sovereignty on condition that they retired themselves upon notice hereof as became good and dutiful Subjects He interdicted also the like Concourse as had been lately made at Edenborough upon pain of Treason commanding that none of them should repair to Sterling to which the Term was then Adjourned or any other place of Counsel and Session without Warrant from the Lords of the Council and that all such of what sort soever not being Lords of the Council or Session which were not Inhabitants of the Town should within six hours after publication thereof depart the same except they were so Licenced and Warranted as before is said under pain of Treason And finally he concludes with this That he would not shut his ears against any Petition upon this or any other Subject which they should hereafter tender to him provided that the matter and form thereof be not prejudicial to his Regal Authority Had his Majesty followed at the heels of this Proclamation with a powerful Army according to the Custom of his Predecessors Kings of England it might have done some good upon them But Proclamations of Grace and Favour if not backed by Arms are but like Cannons charged with Powder without Ball or Bullet making more noise than execution and serve for nothing in effect but to make the Rebel insolent and the Prince contemptible as it proved in this For on the very day and immediately after the reading of it it was encountered with a Protestation published by the Earl of Hume the Lord Lindsey and others justifying themselves in their Proceedings disclaiming all his Majesties Offers of Grace and Pardon and positively declaring their Resolution to go on as they had begun till they had brought the business to the end intended And in pursuance hereof they erected a new Form of Government amongst themselves despotical enough in respect of those who adhered unto them and unaccountable to his Majesty for their Acts and Orders This Government consisted of four Tables for the four Orders of the State that is to say the Noblemen Barons Burgesses and Ministers each Order consulting at his own Table of such things as were necessary for the carrying on of the Design which being reduced into Form were offered debated and concluded at the General Table consisting of a choice number of Commissioners out of all the rest And that this new Government might be looked on with the greater reverence they fixed themselves in Edenborough the Regal City leaving the Lords of Council and Session to make merry at Sterling where they had little else to do than to follow their Pleasures The Tables were no sooner formed but they resolved upon renewing of the Ancient Confession of that Kirk with a Band thereunto subjoined but fitted and accommodated to the present occasion which had been signed by King Iames on the 28th of Ianuary Anno 1580. after their Account and generally subscribed by all the Nation And by this Band they entred Covenant for Maintenance of their Religion then professed and his Majesties Person but aiming at the destruction of both as appeareth both by the Band it self and their Gloss upon it For by the one they had bound themselues to defend each other against all Persons whatsoever the King himself not being excepted and by the other they declared That under the general Names of Popery Heresie and Superstition which were there expressed they had abjured and required all others so to do not only the Liturgie and Canons lately recommended to them but the Episcopal Government and the five Articles of Perth though confirmed by Parliament And to this Covenant in this sense they required an Oath of all the Subjects which was as great an Usurpation of the Regal Power as they could take upon themselves for confirming their own Authority and the Peoples Obedience in any Project whatsoever which should afterwards issue from those Tables In this Estate we leave the Scots and return to England where we shall find all things in a better condition at least as to the outward appearance whatsoever secret workings were in agitation amongst the Grandees and chief Leaders of the Puritan Faction Little or no noise raised about the publishing of the Book for Sports or silencing the Calvinian Doctrines according to his Majesties Declaration before the Articles No clamour touching the transposing of the Holy Table which went on leisurely in most places vigorously in many and in some stood still The Metropolitical Visitation and the Care of the Bishops had settled these Particulars in so good a way that mens Passions began to calm and their Thoughts to come to some repose when the Commands had been more seriously considered of than at first they were And now the Visitation having been carried into all parts of the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales his Grace began to cast his eye upon the Islands of Guernsey and Iersey two Islands lying on the Coast of Normandy to the Dukedom whereof they once belonged and in the
excused for Age and indisposition testified their affections to his Majesties Service in good Sums of money The Flower of the English Gentry would not stay behind but chearfully put themselves into the Action upon a confidence of getting honour for themselves as well as for their King or Country many of which had been at great charge in fâ—rniâ—â—ing themselves for this Expedition on an assurance of being repaid in Favours what they spent in Treasure And not a few of our old Commanders which had been trained up in the Wars of Holland and the King of Sweden deserted their Employments 〈◊〉 to serve their Soveraign whether with a greater gallantry or a â—ection it is hard to say The Horse computed to 6000. as good as ever charged on a standing Enemy The Foot of a sufficient number though not proportionable to the Horse stout men and well a 〈◊〉 for the most part to the Cause in hand the Canon Bullets and all other sorts oâ— Ammunition nothing inferiour to the rest of the Preparations An Army able to have trampled all Scotland under their feet Gods ordinary providence concurring with them and made the King as absolutely Master of that Kingdom as many Prince could be of a conquered Nation The chief Command committed to the Earl of Arundel who though not biassed toward Rome as the Scots reported him was known to be no friend to the Puritan Faction The Earl of Holland having been Captain of his Majesties Guard and formerly appointed to conduct some fresh â—ecruits to the Isle of Rhee was made Lieutenant of the Horse And the Earl of Essex who formerly had seen some service in Holland and very well understood the Art of War Lieutenant-General of the Foot Besides which power that marcht by Land there were some other Forces embarqued in a considerable part of the Royal Navy with plenty of Coin and Ammunition which was put under the command of Hamilton who must be of the Quorum in all businesses with order to ply about the Coasts of Scotland and thereby to surprise their Ships and destroy their Trade and make such further attempts to Landward as opportunity should offer and the nature of affairs require It is reported and I have it from a very good hand that when the old Archbishop of St. Andrews came to take his leave of the King at his setting forward toward the North he desired leave to give his Majesty three Advertisements before his going The first was That his Majesty would suffer none of the Scottish Nation to remain in his Army assuring him that they would never fight against their Countrymen but rather hazard the whole Army by their â—ergiversation The second was that his Majesty would make a Catalogue of all his Counsellors Officers of Houshold and domestick Servants and having so done would with his Pen obliterate and expunge the Scots beginning first with the Archbishop of St. Andrews himself who had given the Counsel conceiving as he then declared that no man could accuse the King of Partiality when they found the Archbishop of St. Andrews who had so faithfully served his Father and himself about sixty years should be expunged amongst the rest A third was That he must not hope to win upon them by Condescensions or the sweetness of his disposition or by Acts of Grace but that he should resolve to reduce them to their duty by such waies of Power as God had put into his hands The Reason of which Counsel was because he found upon a sad experience of sixty years that generally they were a people of so cross a grain that they were gained by Punishments and lost by Favours But contrary to this good Counsel his Majesty did not only permit all his own Servants of that Nation to remain about him but suffered the Earls of Roxborough and Traquaire and other Noblemen of that Kingdom with their several Followers and Retinues to repair to York under pretence of offering of some expedient to compose the differences Where being come they plyed their business so well that by representing to the Lords of the English Nation the dangers they would bring themselves into by the Pride and Tyranny of the Bishops if the Scots were totally subdued they mitigated the displeasures of some and so took off the edge of others that they did not go from York the same men they came thither On the discovery of which Practice and some intelligence which they had with the Covenanters they were confined to their Chambers the first at York the other at Newcastle but were presently dismissed again and sent back to Scotland But they had first done what they came for never men being so suddenly cooled as the Lords of England or ever making clearer shews of an alteration in their words and gestures This change his Majesty soon found or had cause to fear and therefore for the better keeping of his Party together he caused an Oath to be propounded to all the Lords and others of chief Eminency which attended on him before his departure out of York knowing full well that those of the inferiour Orbs would be wholly governed by the motion of the higher Spheres The Tenor of which Oath was this that followeth I A. B. do Swear before the Almighty and Ever-living God That I will bear all faithful Allegiance to my true and undoubted Sovereign King CHARLES who is Lawful King of this Island and all other his Kingdoms and Dominions both by Sea and Land by the Laws of God and Man and by Lawful Succession And that I will mâ—st constantly and most chearfully even to the utmost hazard of my Life and Fortunes oppose all Seditions Rebellions Conjurations Conspiracies whatsoever against his Royal Dignity Crown and Person raised or set up under what pretence or colour soever And if it shall come vailed under pretence of Religion I hold it more abominable both before God and Man And this Oath I take voluntarily in the Faith of a good Christian and Loyal Subject without Equivocation or mental Reservation whatsoever from which I hold no Power on Earth can absolve me in any part Such was the Tenour of the Oath which being refused by two and but two of the Lords of which one would not Say it nor the other â—rock it the said Refusers were committed to the Custody of the Sheriffs of York and afterwards for their further Tryal Interrogated upon certain Articles touching their approbation or dislike of the War To which their Answers were so doubtful and unsatisfactory that his Majesty thought it safer for him to dismiss them home than to keep them longer about him to corrupt the rest By means whereof he furnished them with an opportunity of doing him more disservice at home where there was no body to attend and observe their Actions than possibly they could have done in the Army where there were so many eyes to watch them and so many hands to pull them back if they proved extravagant As to the
Worship of God his design to bring in Popery by the back-door of Arminianism and his endeavouring of a Reconciliation betwixt us and Rome And first as touching such Innovations in the Worship of God he makes a general purgation of himself in his Speech made in the Star-Chamber the sum and substance whereof you have seen before Out of which I shall only take this short and pithy Declaration which he makes of himself in relation to this part of his charge viz. I can say it clearly and truly as in the presence of God that I have done nothing as a Prelate to the utmost 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 the Church of England For my care of this Church the reducing it to Order the upholding of the External Worship of God in it and the settling of the Rules of its first Reformation are the cause and the sole cause whatsoever is pretended of this malicious storm that hath lowred so black upon me and some of my Brethren The like Declaration he also makes in his first Speech to the Lords at the time of his tryal where we find it thus Ever since I came into place saith he I have laboured nothing more than that the External Worship of God so much slighted in divers parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be For I evidently saw that the publick neglect of Gods Service in the outward face of it and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that Service had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the body needs External helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the utmost of my knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People nor did any Command issue out from me against the one or the other And finally we shall find the like Declaration made by him on the Scaâ—fold at the time of his death in which sad hour there was no dissembling and I conceive all charitable men will believe so of it before God or man But because it relates also to the next particular we shall there meet with it And for the next particular concerning the designing to bring in â—â—pery it hath been further aggravated by his correspondency with tâ—e Popes Ministers here in England and his indulgence to that Party upon all occasions But of this he cleansed himself sufficiently in the 〈◊〉 Chamiber Speech before remembred in which he publickly avowed First That he knew of no plot or purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly That he had never been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And thirdly having offered his Oath for the other two that it the King had a mind to change Religion which he knew he had not his Majesty must seek for other Instruments how basely soever those men had conceived of him The like 〈…〉 gives also in the last hour of his life when he was goâ—â—â— to tender an account of all his Actions before Gods Tribunal â—here is a Clamour that I would have brought in Popery but I was 〈◊〉 and baptized saith he in the bosome of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion and therefore I 〈◊〉 it may be remembred I have alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to die And then he adds with reference to the point before What Clamours and slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the External Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly 〈◊〉 His Conference with Fisher the Iesuite in the year 1622. and 〈…〉 of that Conference Anno 1637. with Derings attestation 〈…〉 before we had do most abundantly evince this truth at he approved not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And as 〈◊〉 approveâ— not of their Doctrines so he as much disliked their 〈◊〉 for gaining Proselytes or multiplying their followers in all 〈…〉 the Kingdom concerning which he tells his Majesty That 〈…〉 never had advised a persecution of the Papists in any 〈◊〉 yet God forbid saith he that your Majesty should let born Laws and Discipline sleep for fear of a Persecution and in the mean time let Mr. Fisher and his Fellows Angle in all parts of your Dominions for your Subjects If in your Grace and Goodness you will spare their persons yet I humbly beseech you to see to it that they be not suffered to lay either their Weels or bait their Hâ—oks or cast their Nets in every stream least the Temptation grow both too general and too strong So he in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Large Relation of the Conference between him and Fisher published in the end of the year forgoing Assuredly it must needs seem extremely ridiculous to others and contradictory to it self to confute the chief Doctrines of the Papists and oppose their practicings if he â—ad had any such design to bring in Popery And being thus averse from them in point of Doctrine he declined all correspondence and acquaintance with them whereby he might come under the suspicion of some secret Practice I hold it probable enough that the better to oblige the Queen unto him of whose Prevalency in the Kings affections he could not be ignorant he might consent to Con's coming hither over from the Pope to be assistant to her in such affairs as the nature of her Religion might occasion with the Sea of Rome But he kept himself at such a distance that neither Con nor Panzani before him who acted for a time in the same capacity could fasten any acquaintance on him The Pamphlet called The Popes Nuncio Printed in the year 1643. hath told us That Panzani at his being here did desire a Conference with the Archbishop of Canterbury but was put of and procrastinated therein from day to day That at the last he departed the Kingdom without any Speech with him The like we find in the discovery of Andreas ab Habernfield who tells us of this Con That finding the Kings Judgment to depend much on the Archbishop of Canterbury his faithful Servant he resolved to move every stone and bend all his strength to gain him to his side being confident he had prepared the means For he had a command to make offer of a Cardinals Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him
poisoned Religion that Tithes and Oblations are now in the sight of God but as the sacrificed blood of Goats and that fulness of bread having made the Children wanton it was without any scruple to be taken away from them He made upon the whole matter this ensuing Judgement By this means saith he or the like suggestions received with all joy and with like sedulity practiced in certain parts of the Christian World they have brought to pass that as David doth say of man so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole Religion and service of God The time thereof may peradventure fall out to be threescore and ten years or if strength do serve unto fourscore what followeth is like to be small joy for them whosoever they be that behold the same An Observation which seems to savour more of the Prophet then it did of the Preist and to have as much Divination as Divinity in it Thus also in reference to himself he was now growing towards the term of 70 years which the Psalmist had assigned to the Life of man and there wanted not many sad Presages of his Fall and Death He was much given to take notice of his Dreams and commit them to writing Amongst which I find this for one that on Friday night the 24th of Ian. 1639. his father who died 46 years before came to him and that to his thinking he was as well and as cheerful as ever he saw him that his Father asked him what he did there that after some speech he demanded of his Father how long he would stay there and that his Father made this Answer that he would stay till he had him along with him A dream which made such Impression on him as to add this Note to it in his Breviate that though he was not moved with Dreams yet he thought fit to remember this On Friday night just a Moneth before being the 27th of December and the night following the day of S. Iohn the Evangelist there was raised such a violent Tempest that many of the Boats which were drawn to Land at Lambeth were dasht one against the other and were broke to pieces and that the shafts of two Chimneys were blown down upon the Roof of his Chamber and beat down both the Lead and Raâ—ters upon his bed in which ruine he must needs have Perished if the Roughness of the water had not forced him to keep his Chamber at White-hall A mischance somewhat of this nature befel the same night at Croyden a retiring place belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury where one of the Pinacles fell from the Steeple beat down the Lead and Roof of the Church above twenty foot square But that which was more remarkable then either of these happened the same night at the Metropolitical Church in the City of Canterbury where one of the Pinacles upon the top of the Bell-frey Tower which carried a vane with this Archbishops Arms upon it was violently struck down but born a good distance from the Steeple to fall upon the Roof of the Cloyster under which the Arms of the Archiepiscopal See it self were engraven in stone which Arms being broken to pieces by the fall of the other gave occasion unto one who loved him not to collect this Inference that the Arms of the present Archbishop of Canterbury breaking down the Arms of the See of Canterbury not only portended his own fall but the Ruine of the Metropolitical dignity by the weight thereof Of these mis-fortunes which some men perhaps may call Presages he took not so much notice as he did of an accident which happened on S. Simon and Iude's eâ—e not above a week before the beginning of the late long Parliament which drew him to his final Ruine On which day going into his upper study to send some Manuscripts to Oxon â—e found his Picture at full Length and taken as near unto the life as the Pensil was able to express it to be fallen on the Floor and lying flat upon its face the string being broke by which it was hanged against the wall At the sight whereof he took such a suddain appâ—ehension that he began to fear it as an Omen of that ruine which was coming toward him and which every day began to be threatned to him as the Parliament grew nearer and nearer to consult about it Which accidents happening one in the neck of anotâ—er gave him some occasion to look back on a former misfortune which chanced on the 19th of Septemb. 1633. being the very day of his Translation to the See of Canterbury When the Ferry Boat transporting his Coach and Horses with many of his Servants in it sunk to the bottom of the Thames And though he lost neither man nor Horse by the misadventure yet much discourse was made upon it and most beheld it as a sign of no good Fortune which should beâ—al him in the course of his Future Actions But worse Presages then all these were the breaking out of divers Plots and Practices against him by the Opposite Factions not only the Puritans but the Papists conspiring against him and both Resolved to bring him to his Fatal end by some means or other The Papists which had hope to effect great matters by the Power and Prevalency of the Queen found the Archbishop so averse from their courses and the King so resolute in the maintainance of the true Protestant Religion here by Law established that they perceived it necessary to remove them both out of the way before any thing could be effected answerable to their expectation A confederacy was formed amongst them consisting of some of the most subtle heads in the whole Jesuitical party by whom it was concluded to foment the broils began in Scotland and to heighten the combustions there that the King being drawn into a War might give them the better opportunity to effect their enterprise for sending him and the Archbishop to the other world Which being by one of the party on compunction of Conscience made known to Andreas ab Habernsfield who had been Chaplain as some said to the Queen of Bohemia they both together gave intimation of it to Sir William Boswel his Majesties Resident at the Hague having first Found him by his Oath not to reveal the same to any man Living but to the Archbishop himself and by the Archbishop to the King This signiâ—ied by Boswel's Letters of the 9 â—h of Septemb. Together 〈◊〉 a general draught of the design transmitted to Canterbury under the hand of Habernsfield himself the first discoverer of the plot On the Receipt of which dispatches the Archbishop giving directioâ—s to Boswel to proceed to a further discovery of it sends the Intelligence with all speed imaginable by his Letters of the 11th of the same Moneth to the King at York beseeching nothing more then his see â—â—y in it that he would not trust his Pockets with those dangerous Papers and finally that he would declare
himself was fain to call both Houses before him within two daies after there to Explain or rather to Retract so harsh a Title calling them afterwards by the name of his Subjects of Scotland as he used to do which gave the Commons such a sense of their Power and of his Compliance that they resolved to husband both to their best advantage and not so easily to part with their Friends of Scotland as his Majesty first hoped they would The differences might have been agreed at York or Rippon if the Commissioners of the Scots had been as forward as the English but the Scots so delayed them as his Majesty noted in that Speech that it was not possible to end it there The Scots had other work to do besides their own and must be kept in pay at the charge of the English till they had brought his Majesty into such a condition that it was not safe for him to deny them any thing which they had the confidence to require Such a beginning had this long and unhappy Parliament unhappy to the King and to all that loved his Power or Person most men who looked on his Affairs with the eye of Judgment presaging that this thrifâ—y omission of the Publick Pomp in the present Conjunctures would prove as inauspicious to him as the like neglect had done at his Coronation and that this Parliament which began without solemnity would prove a Parliament of sorrows unto him and his With little better Fortune did the Convocation take beginning at S. Pauls Church on the morrow after handselled at their first meeting by the sad news of the Decease of Dr. Neile Archbishop of York which had been brought unto the Town the day before A man he was who had past through all Degrees and Orders in the Church of England and thereby made acquainted with the conveniencies or distresses incident to all conditions He had served the Church as Schoolmaster Curate Vicar Parson Master of the Savoy Dean of Westminster Clerk of the Closet to both Kings successively Bishop of Rochester Lichfield Lincoln Durham and Winchester and finally Archbishop of York in which place he died Many good Offices he had done to the Church and Church-men in his attendance at the Court crossing the Scots in most of their suits their Ecclesiastical Preferments which greedily and ambitiously they hunted after and thereby drawing on himself the general hatred not only of the Scots but Scotizing English But of this Prelate we have spoke so much upon other occasions that we may save the labour of any further addition than that he died as full of years as he was of honours an affectionate Subject to his Prince an indulgent Father to his Clergy a bountiful Patron to his Chaplains and a true friend to all which relied upon him more fortunate in the time of his death than the course of his life in being prevented by that blessed opportunity from seeing those calamities which afterwards fell upon the King the Church and all that wish well to either of them which must have been more grievous to him than a thousand deaths But this bad news retarded not the Convocation from proceeding forwards the Prelates and Clergy attending the Archbishop from the Chapter-house into the Choire where they heard the Sermon Preached at that time by Bargrave then Dean of Canterbury which done the Clergy settled to the choice of a Prolocutor electing the same man who had before discharged the Place with so much dexterity Adjourned to Westminster and Protestation made by the Sub-Dean and Prebends according to the usual custome the Prolocutor was presented to the Archbishop and Bishops in the Chappel of King Henry vii at what time the Archbishop in an eloquent but sad Oration bemoaned the infelicities which he saw hanging over the Church advising every one there present to perform their Duties and not to be wanting to themselves or the cause of Religion as far forth as they were concerned in their several places Nothing more done of any moment in this Convocation but that a motion was made by Warmistre one of the Clerks for the Diocess of Worcester to this effect viz. That they should endeavour according to the Levitical Laws to cover the Pit which they had opened and to prevent their Adversaries intention by condemning such offensive Canons as were made in the last Convocation He had before offered at many things in that Convocation but such was his ill-luck that the Vote was for the most part passed before he spake nor had he better fortune in his motion now than his offers then the Members of that House not being willing to condemn themselves till they were accused So that not having any other way to obtain his purpose he caused a long Speech which he had made upon this occasion to be put in Print bitter enough against some Canons and Proceedings in the former Session but such as could not save him from a Sequestration when the rest of the Clergy were brought under the same condition Whilst these things were acting on the Stage of Westminster the Earl of Strafford was not Idle in acting his part at York amongst the Souldiers whose affections he had gained so far that he was generally beheld with esteem and veneration He had before sufficient proof how strongly the Scots aimed at his destruction expressed in their Remonstrance and the Intentions of their Army as they called the Pamphlet but more especially by the refusal of the Scots Commissioners to hold the Treaty at York and the reasons given for their refusal for in a Paper of theirs presented on October 8. They had insisted on the danger apprehended by them in going to York and casting themselves and others who might be joyned with them into the hands of an Army commanded by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland against whom as a chief Incendiary according to their demands which was the subject of the Treaty it self they resolved to proceed They complained also in that Paper That in the Parliament of Ireland he had proceeded against them as Traitors and Rebels That he honoured them in his common talk with no better Titles That his Commission was to destroy them And that by all means and by all occasions he had hindred all Propositions tending to a Pacification for fear himself might be excluded from the benefit of it He was not without a strong presumption that the Scots were animated unto these Demands and incouraged to invade the Kingdom by some of those which were of greatest Prevalency in both Houses of Parliament And lying so near the Scots in the head of his Army he had not only gained assurance as he conceived in many particulars to confirm it but that there was a Confederacy made between the Heads of the Covenanters and some of the leading Members of both Houses his most Capital Enemies to subject the Government of the Church and innovate in that of the Civil State which Intelligence being digested
without daily Wages they had each of them their 4 s. per diem well and truly paid and were besides invested in several Lectures in and about the City of London and the best Benefices some of them three or four for failing which could be found in all the Kingdom His Majesty looks on this as a new Provocation a strange and unparallell'd Incroachment on his Royal Prerogative to which alone the calling of such Assemblies did belong by the Laws of the Realm He sees withal the dangerous ends for which it was called of what Ingredients for the most part the whole Assembly was composed what influence the prevailing party in both Houses was to have upon it and the sad consequents which in all probability were to be expected from it to the Church and State And thereupon by his Proclamation of Iune 22. being just ten days after the date of the Ordinance by which the Assembly was indicted He inhibits all and every Person named in that pretended Ordinance under several pains from assembling together for the end and purpose therein set down declaring the Assembly to be illegal and that the Acts thereof ought not to be received by any of his good Subjects as binding them or of any Authority with them Which Prohibition notwithstanding most of the Members authorised by that Ordinance assembled in the Abby of Westminster on the first of Iuly in contempt of his Majesty and the Laws But what they did or whether they did any thing or not more than their taking of the Covenant and issuing a new Form of Worship by the name of a Directory comes not within the compass of my Observation Such were his Majesties pious Cares for preserving the Peace of the Church the Purity of Religion and the possessions of his Clergy in the midst whereof he kept his eye on the course of that War which â—itherto he had prosecuted with such good success with hopes of better fortune for the time to come For having triumphantly brought the Queen into Oxford in the beginning of the Spring with some Supplies of Men and a considerable Stock of Powder Arms and Ammunition which she bought in Holland he finds himself in a condition to take the Field and in this Summer becomes Master of the North and West some few places only being excepted The Earl of Newcâ—sâ—le with his Northern Army had cleared all parts beyond Trent but the Town of Hull of the Enemies Forces And with his own Army under the Command of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice two of the younger Sons of his Sister Elizabeth Queen of â—â—hemia â—e reduced the Cities of Bristol and Exeter the Port-Town of Weymouth and all the Towns of any importance in the Western Parts except Poole Lime and Plymouth So that he was in a manner the absolute Commander of the Counties of Wilts Dorset Sommerset Devon and Cornwal And though the Towns of Plymouth Lime and Poole still held out against him yet were they so bridled by his neighbouring Garrisons that they were not able to create him any great disturbance The noise of which successes was so loud at London that most of the leading men in both Houses of Parliament prepared for quitting of the Kingdom and had undoubtedly so done if the King had followed his good Fortunes and advanced toward London But unhappily diverting upon 〈◊〉 he lay so long there without doing any thing to the purpose that the Earl of Essex came time enough to raise the Siege and relieve the Town though he made not haste enough to recover 〈◊〉 without blows For besides some Skirmishes on the by which â—â—ll out to his loss the King with the whole Body of his Army overtook him at Newbury where after a sharp Fight with the loss of the Earl of Carnarvan the Earl of Sunderland and the Lord Viscount Faulkland on his Majesties side he had the worst of the day and had much a do to save his Cannon and march off orderly from the place followed so hotly the next morning that his own Horse which were in the Rere were fain to make their way over a great part of his â—ooâ— to preserve themselves But being returned to Oxford with Success and Honour he Summons the Lords and Commons of Parliament to attend there on Ianuary 22. then next following and they came accordingly And for their better welcome he advances Prince Rupert to the Titles of Earl of Holderness and Duke of Cumberland and creates Iames his Second Son born October 13. Anno 1633. Duke of York by which name he had been appointed to be called at the time of his Birth that they might Sit and Vote amongst them But being come they neither would take upon themselves the name of a Parliament nor acted much in order to his Majesties Designs but stood so much upon their terms and made so many unhandsom Motions to him upon all occasions that he had more reason to call them A Mongrel Parliament in one of his Letters to the Queen than they were willing to allow of Scarce were they settled in their several and respective Houses when they were entertained with a hot Alarm made by the coming in of the Scots with a puissant Army the greatest and best accommodated with all sorts of Arms and Ammunition that ever was mustered by that Nation since it had a being His Majesties wonderful Successes in the North and West strook such a terrour in the prevailing Party of both Houses that they were forced to cast themselves upon the Scots for Support and Succour dispatching Armine and some other of their active Members to negotiate a new Confederacy with them The Scots had thrived so wâ—ll by the former Service as made them not unwilling to come under the pay of such bountiful Masters and by the Plunder of so many of the Northern Counties had made themselves Masters of a greater stock of Arms and Horses than that Kingdom formerly could pretend to in its greatest Glories But knowing well in what necessity their dear Brethren in England stood of their assistance they were resolved to make Hay while the Sun shined and husband that necessity to their best advantage The English must first enter into Covenant with them for conforming of this Church with that They must be flattered with the hopes of dividing the Bishops Lands amongst them that they might plant themselves in some of the fairest Houses and best Lands of this Kingdom So great a stroke is to be given them in the Government of all Affairs that the Houses could act nothing in order to the present War no not so much as to hold a Treaty with the King without the consent of their Commissioners Some of their Ministers Gillespie Henderson c. with as many of their Ruling Elders to â—it in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster that nothing might be acted which concerned Religion but by their Advice One hundred thousand pounds for Advance-money to put them into heart and
discontentments which appeared in the people for the Princes Journey into Spain the sad consequents which were feared to ensue upon it in reference to his Person and the true Religion that the blame of all was by the People laid on the Duke and that it was safest for his Majecty to let it rest where they had laid it But nothing could be thought more strange unto him than that the Lord Keeper Williams and the Lord Treasurer Cranfield should be of Counsel in the Plot both of them being of his raising and both in the stile of Court his Creatures Of all which practises and proceedings Laud gives intelligence to the Duke and receives back again Directions in his actings for him Pity it is that none of these reciprocal Letters have been found to make up the Cabala and to enrich the treasures in the Scrinea Sacra From hence proceeded the constancy of affection which the Duke carried to him for ever after the Animosity between Laud and Williams the fall of Cranfield first and of Williams afterwards Laud by his diligence and fidelity overtopping all The news of these practices in the Court made the Duke think of leaving Spain where he began to sink in his Estimation and hasting his return to England for fear of sinking lower here than he did in Spain Some clashings there had been betwixt him and the Conde d' Olivarez the Principal Favorite of that King and some Caresses were made to him by the Queen of Bohemia inviting him to be a God-father to one of her Children In these disquiets and distractions he puts the Prince in mind of the other Game he had to play namely the Restitution of the Palatinate which the Spaniard would not suffer to be brought under the Treaty of the Match reserving it as they pretended and perhaps really intended to be bestowed by the Infanta after the Marriage the better to ingratiate her self with the English Nation Which being a point of too great moment to depend upon no other assurance than a Court-Complement only it was concluded by the Prince That since he could not prevail in the one he would not proceed to the Consummation of the other But then it did concern him so to provide for his own saâ—ety that no intimation might be made of the intended Rupture till he had unwinded himself out of that Labyrinth into which he was cast For which cause having desired of his Father that some Ships might be sent to bring him some he shewed himself a more passionate Lover than ever formerly bestowed upon the Lady Infanta many rich Jewels of most inestimable value and made a Proxie to the Catholick King and Don Charles his Brother in his name to Espouse tâ—e Lady Which Proxie being made and executed in due form of Law on the Fourth of August 1623. was put into the Hands of Digby on the Fifteenth of September after made Earl of Bristol by him to be delivered to the King of Spain within ten days after the coming of the Dispensation from the new Pope Vrban which was then every day expected But no sooner had he took his leave and was out of danger but he dispatch'd a Post unto him commanding him not to deliver up the Proxie until further Order And having so done he hoised Sails for England Arriving at Portsmouth on Sunday the fifth of October he rides Post the next day to London and after Dinner on the same day to the Court at Royston his welcom home being celebrated in all Places with Bells and Bonfires and other accustomed Expressions of a Publick Joy Being come unto the Court they acquaint his Majesty with all that hapned informing him that no assurance of regaining the Palatinate could be had in Spain though the Match went forwards His Majesty thereupon dispatches Letters to the Earl of Bristol on the eighth of October requiring him not to deliver up the Proxie and so not to proceed to the Espousals till the Christmas Holy-days and in the mean time to press that King to a positive Answer touching the Palatinate The expectation whereof not being answered by success a Parliament is summoned to begin on the 17th of February then next following to the end that all things might be governed in this Great Affair by the publick Counsel of the Kingdom Not long after the beginning whereof the Duke declaâ—ed before both Houses more to the disadvantage of the Spaniard than there was just ground for how unhandsomly they had dealt with the Prince when he was in Spain how they had fed him with delays what indignities they had put upon him and finally had sent him back not only without the Palatinate but without a Wife leaving it to their prudent consideration what course to follow It was thereupon Voted by both Houses That his Majesty should be desired to break off all Treaties with the King of Spain and to engage himself in a War against him for the recovery of the Palatinate not otherwise to be obtained And that they might come the better to the end they aimed at they addressed themselves unto the Prince whom they assured That they would stand to him in that War to the very last expence of their Lives and Fortunes and he accordingly being further set on by the Duke became their instrument to perswade his Father to hearken to the Common Votes and Desires of his Subjects which the King press'd by their continual Importunities did at the last but with great unwillingness assent to Such was the conduct of this business on the part of the English Look we next what was done in Spain and we shall find in Letters from the Earl of Bristol That as soon as news was come to Spain that King Iames had sworn the Articles of the Treaty which was done on the 26th of Iuly the Lady Infanta by all the Court with the Approbation of that King and her own good-liking was called La Princessa d' Inglaterra That as such she gave her self the liberty of going publickly to such Comedies as were presented in the Court which before was not allowable in her That as such also not only he himself as the Kings Embassadour was commanded to serve her but the Duke and all the English were admitted to kiss her hands as her Servants and Vassals That after the Princes departure there was no thought of any thing but of providing Presents for the King and him the setling of the Princesses Family and making Preparations for the Journey on the first of March That the Princess also had begun to draw the Letters which she intended to have written the day of her disposories to the Prince her Husband and the King her Father in Law That besides such assurances as were given by the Count of Olivarez and other Ministers of that King the Princess had made the business of the Palatinate to be her own and had therein most expresly moved the King her Brother and written to the Conde