was nothing done against Law any Friend may privately assist another in his Difficulties And I am perswaded many Friends in either House do what they justly may when such sad Occasions happen And this Answer I gave to Mr. Brown when he Summed up my Charge in the House of Commons But Mr. Brown did not begin with this but with another here omitted by Mr. Nicolas though he had pressed it before in the Fifteenth day of my Hearing Dr. Potter writ unto me for my advice in some Passages of a Book writ by him as I remember against a Book Intituled Charity mistaken I did not think it fit to amend any thing with my own Pen but put some few things back to his Second Thoughts of which this was one That if he express himself so he will give as much Power to the Parliament in Matters of Doctrine as to the Church This Mr. Brown said took away all Authority from Parliaments in that kind But under Favour this takes away nor all nor any that is due unto them Not all for my Words are about giving so much Power Now he that would not have so much given to the one as the other doth not take away all from either Not any that is due to them For my Words not medling simply with Parliamentary Power as appears by the Comparative Words so much my Intention must needs be to have Dr. Potter so to consider of his Words as that that which is proper to the Church might not be ascribed to Parliaments And this I conceive is plain in the very Letter of the Law The Words of the Statute are Or such as shall hereafter be Ordered Judged or determined to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament in this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation Where 't is manifest that the Judging and Determining Part for the Truth or Falshood of the Doctrin is in the Church For the Assent of the Church or Clergy cannot be given but in Convocation and so the Law requires it Now Assent in Convocation cannot be given but there must preceed a Debate a Judging a Voting and a Determining Therefore the Determining Power for the Truth or Falshood of the Doctrine Heresie or no Heresie is in the Church But the Judging and determining Power for binding to Obedience and for Punishment is in the Parliament with this Assent of the Clergy Therefore I humbly conceive the Parliament cannot by Law that is till this Law be first altered Determine the Truth of Doctrine without this Assent of the Church in Convocation And that such a Synod and Convocation as is Chosen and Assembled as the Laws and Customs of this Realm require To this Mr. Brown in his Reply upon me in the House of Commons said Two Things The one that this Branch of the Statute of one Eliz. was for Heresie only and the Adjudging of that but medled not with the Parliaments Power in other matters of Religion If it be for Heresie only that the Church alone shall not so Determine Heresie as to bring those grievous Punishments which the Law lays upon it upon the Neck of any Subject without Determination in Parliament then is the Church in Convocation left free also in other matters of Religion according to the First Clause in Magna Charta which establishes the Church in all her Rights And her main and constant Right when that Charter was made and confirmed was Power of Determining in matters of Doctrine and Discipline of the Church And this Right of the Clergy is not bounded or limited by any Law but this Clause of 1. Eliz. that ever I heard of The other was that if this were so that the Parliament might not meddle with Religion but with the Assent of the Clergy in Convocation we should have had no Reformation For the Bishops and the Clergy dissented First it is not as I conceive to be denyed that the King and his High Court of Parliament may make any Law what they please and by their Absolute Power may change Religion Christianity into Turcism if they please which God forbid And the Subjects whose Consciences cannot obey must flye or indure the Penalty of the Law But both King and Parliament are sub graviori Regno and must Answer God for all such abuse of Power But beside this Absolute there is a Limited Power Limited I say by Natural Justice and Equity by which no Man no Court can do more than what he can by Right And according to this Power the Church's Interest must be considered and that indifferently as well as the Parliaments To apply this to the Particular of the Reformation The Parliament in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth would not indure Popish Superstition and by Absolute Power Abolished it without any Assent of the Clergy in Convocation And then in her first Year An. 1559. She had a Visitation and set out her Injunctions to direct and order such of the Clergy as could conform their Judgments to the Reformation But then so soon as the Clergy was settled and that a Form of Doctrine was to be agreed upon to shew the difference from the Roman Superstition a Synod was called and in the Year 1562. the Articles of Religion were agreed upon and they were determined and confirmed by Parliament with the Assent of the Clergy in Convocation and that by a just and orderly Power Nor is the Absolute Power of King and Parliament any way unjust in it self but may many ways be made such by Misinformation or otherwise And this gives the King and the Parliament their full Power and yet preserves this Church in her just Right Just and acknowledged by some that loved her not over well For the Lord Brook tells us That what a Church will take for true Doctrine lies only in that Church Nay the very Heathen saw clearly the Justice of this For M. Lucullus was able to say in Tully That the Priests were Judges of Religion and the Senate of Law The Second Proof is That I made two Speeches for the King to be spoken or sent to the Parliament that then was and that they had some sour and ill Passages in them These Speeches were read to the Lords and had I now the Copies I would insert them here and make the World Judge of them First I might shuffle here and deny the making of them For no Proof is offer'd but that they are in my Hand and that is no necessary Proof For I had then many Papers by me written in my own Hand which were not my making though I transcribed them as not thinking it fit to trust them in other Hands But Secondly I did make them and I followed the Instructions which were given me as close as I could to the very Phrases and being commanded to the Service I hope it shall not now be made my Crime that I was trusted by my Soveraign Thirdly As I did never
been lately made Secondly That to effect this Trayterous Design they have not only secretly erected some Monasteries of Monks Nuns in and about London but sent over hither whole Regiments of most active subtile Jesuits incorporated into a particular new Society whereof the Pope himself is Head and Cardinal Barbarino his Vicar which Society was first discovered and some of them apprehended in their private College at Clerkenwel together with their Books of Account Reliques and Massing Trinkets about the beginning of the Second Parliament of this King yet such Power Favour Friends they had then acquired that their Persons were speedily and most indirectly released out of Newgate without any Prosecution to prevent the Parliament's Proceedings against them Since which this conjured Society increasing in Strength and Number secretly replanted themselves in Queenstreet and Long-Acre and their Purses are now so strong their Hopes so elevated their Designs so ripened as they have there purchased and founded a new magnificent College of their own for their Habitation near the fairest Buildings of Nobles Knights and Gentlemen the more commodiously to seduce them Thirdly That these Jesuits and Conspirators hold weekly constant uninterrupted Intelligence with the Pope and Romish Cardinals and have many Spies or Intelligencers of all sorts about the King Court City Noblemen Ladies Gentlemen and in all Quarters of the Kingdom to promote this their Damnable Plot. Fourthly That the Pope for divers late Years hath had a known avowed Legat Con by Name openly residing even in London near the Court of purpose to reduce the King and his Kingdoms to the Obedience of the Church of Rome and the Queen at least another Leger at Rome trading with the Pope to facilitate the Design to wit one Hamilton a Scot who receives a large Pension out of the Exchequer granted to another Protestant of that Name who payeth it over unto him to palliate the business from the People's knowledge by which means there hath been a constant allowed Negotiation held between Rome and England without any open interruption Fifthly That the Pope's Legat came over into England to effect this Project and kept his Residence here in London for the better Prosecution thereof by the King 's own Privity and Consent And whereas by the ancient Law and Custom of the Realm yet in force even in Times of Popery no Legat whatsoever coming from Rome ought to cross the Seas or land in England or any the King's Dominions without the King's Petition Calling and Request and before he had taken a Solemn Oath or Protestation to bring and attempt nothing in Word or Deed to the Prejudice of the Rights Priviledges Laws and Customs of the King and Realm This Legat for ought appears was here admitted without any such cautionary Oath which would have crossed the chief End of his Legation to prejudice all of them and our Religion too Yea whereas by the Statutes of the Realm it is made no less than High Treason for any Priests Jesuits or others receiving Orders or Authority from the Pope of Rome to set footing in England or any the King's Dominions to seduce any of his Subjects to Popery And no Popish Recusant much less then Priests Jesuits and Legats ought to remain within Ten Miles of the City of London nor come into the King's or Prince's Courts the better to avoid such traiterous and most dangerous Conspiracies Treasons and Attempts as are daily devised and practised by them against the King and Commonweal Yet notwithstanding this Pope's Legat and his Confederates have not only kept Residence for divers Years in or near London and the Court and enjoyed free Liberty without Disturbance or any Prosecution of the Laws against them to seduce his Majesty's Nobles Courtiers Servants Subjects every where to their Grief and Prejudice but likewise have had familiar Access to and Conference with the King himself under the very Name and Authority of the Pope's Legat by all Arts Policies and Arguments to pervert and draw him with his three Kingdoms into a new Subjection to the See of Rome as Cardinal 〈◊〉 the last Pope's Legat extant in England before this in Queen Mary's Reign reconciled her and the Realm to Rome to their intolerable Prejudice An Act so inconsistent with the Laws of the Realm with his Majesty's many ancient and late Remonstrances Oaths Protestations to maintain the Protestant Religion without giving way to any back-sliding to Popery in such sort as it was maintained and professed in the purest Times of Queen Elizabeth c. as may well amaze the World which ever looks more at real Actions than verbal Protestations Sixthly That the Popish Party and Conspirators have lately usurped a Sovereign Power not only above the Laws and Magistrates of the Realm which take no hold of Papists but by the Parliament's late Care against them here but even over the King himself who either cannot or dares not for fear perchance of Poysoning or other Assassination oppose or banish these horrid Conspirators from his Dominions and Court but hath a long time permitted them to prosecute this Plot without any publick Opposition or Dislike by whose Powerful Authority and Mediation all may easily divine Alas What will become of the poor Sheep when the Shepherd himself not only neglects to chase and keep out these Romish Wolves but permits them free Access into and Harbour in the Sheepfold to assault if not devour not only his Flock but Person too Either St. John was much mistaken in the Character of a good Shepherd and in prescribing this Injunction against such Seducers If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is Partaker of his evil Deeds And the Fathers and Canonists deceived in this Maxim Qui non prohibet malum quod potest jubet Or else the Premises cannot be tolerated or defended by any who profess themselves Enemies or Opposites to the Pope Priests or Church of Rome Seventhly That these Conspirators are so potent as to remove from Court and Publick Offices all such as dare strenuously oppose their Plots as the Example of Secretary Cook with other Officers lately removed in Ireland evidence and plant others of their own Party and Confederacy both in his Majesty's Court Privy Council Closet Bed-chamber if not Bed and about the Prince to corrupt them And how those who are thus environed with so many industrious potent Seducers of all sorts who have so many Snares to entrap so many Enticements to withdraw them both in their Beds Bed-Chambers Closets Councils Courts where-ever they go or come should possibly continue long untainted unseduced without an omnipotent Protection of which none can be assured who permits or connives at such dangerous Temptations is a thing scarce credible in Divine or Humane Reason if Adam's Solomon's and others Apostacies by such means be duly pondered
as are warrantable by Act of Parliament 6. All Fortifications to desist and no further working therein and they to be remitted to his Majesty's Pleasure 7. To restore to every one of his Majesty's Subjects their Liberty Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time The Copy of the Act of the Pacification as it passed under his Majesties Hand and includes these Articles above written is as follows Ch. R. WE having considered the Papers and humble Petitions presented unto us by those of our Subjects of Scotland who were admitted to attend our pleasure in the Camp and after a full Hearing by Our Self of all that they could say or alledge thereupon having communicated the same to Our Council of both Kingdoms upon mature deliberation with their unanimous Advice We have thought fit to give them this Just and Gracious Answer That though We cannot condescend to Ratifie and Approve the Acts of the pretended General Assembly at Glasgow for many Grave and Weighty Considerations which have happened both before and since much importing the Honour and Security of that true Monarchical Government Lineally descended upon Us from so many of Our Ancestors Yet such is Our Gracious Pleasure That notwithstanding the many disorders committed of late We are pleased not only to confirm and make good whatsoever Our Commissioner hath granted and promised in Our Name But also We are further Graciously pleased to declare and assure That according to the Petitioner's humble desires all Matters Ecclesiastical shall be determined by the Assemblies of the Kirk and Matters Civil by the Parliament and other inferiour Judicatories Established by Law which accordingly shall be kept once a Year or as shall be agreed upon at the General Assembly And for setling the general distractions of that Our Ancient Kingdom Our Will and Pleasure is that a free General Assembly be kept at Edinburgh the sixth day of August next ensuing where We intend God willing to be personally present And for the Legal Indiction whereof We have given Order and Command to Our Council and thereafter a Parliament to be holden at Edinburgh the 20th day of August next ensuing for Ratifying of what shall be concluded in the said Assembly and setling such other things as may conduce to the Peace and Good of Our Native Kingdom and therein an Act of Oblivion to be passed And whereas We are further desired that Our Ships and Forces by Land be recalled and all Persons Goods and Ships restored and they made safe from Invasion We are Graciously pleased to Declare that upon their disarming and disbanding of their Forces dissolving and discharging all their pretended Tables and Conventicles and restoring unto Us all Our Castles Forts and Ammunitions of all sorts as likewise Our Royal Honours and to every one of Our Good Subjects their Liberty Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them since the late pretended General Assembly We will presently thereafter recall Our Fleet and retire our Land-Forces and cause Restitution to be made to all Persons of their Ships and Goods detained and arrested since the aforesaid time Whereby it may appear that Our intention in taking up of Arms was no ways for Invading of Our Native Kingdom or to Innovate the Religion and Laws but meerly for the Maintaining and Vindicating of Our Royal Authority And since that hereby it doth clearly appear that We neither have nor do intend any alteration in Religion or Laws but that both shall be maintained by Us in their full integrity We expect the performance of that Humble and Dutiful Obedience which becometh Loyal and Dutiful Subjects and as in their several Petitions they have often professed And as We have just Reason to believe that to Our peaceable and well-affected Subjects this will be satisfactory so We take God and the World to witness that whatsoever Calamities shall ensue by Our necessitated suppressing of the Insolencies of such as shall continue in their disobedient Courses is not occasioned by us but by their own procurement This Pacification was not much sooner made by the King than it was broken by the Scots For whereas it was agreed by the Seventh Article and is repeated in the Body of the Pacification That every one of his Majesties good Subjects shou'd enjoy their Liberty Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detayned from them since the aforesaid time The * Lord Lindsay in the Name of the rest made a Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the Cross in Edinburgh that no Bishop or Clergyman was included in this Pacification which yet in manifest and plain Terms extended it self to all the Kings good Subjects And this Protestation was so pursued as that it obtained and no Clergyman was relieved in any the Particulars Upon this and other Particulars agitated in Parliament amongst them his Majesty thought fit to look to himself and examine their Proceedings farther To this end he often called his Council and in particular made a Committee of eight more particularly to attend that service They were the Lord Bishop of London then Lord Treasurer the Lord Marquis Hamilton the Earl of Northumberland Lord Admiral the Earl of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Cottington Sir Henry Vane and Sir Francis Windebanck Secretaries and my self to which was after added the Earl of Arundel Lord Marshal And though I spake nothing of these Scottish Businesses but either openly at Council-Table or in presence of all or so many of this Committee as occasionally met and so had Auditors and Witnesses enough of what I did or said yet it was still cast out among the 〈◊〉 that I was a chief Incendiary in the Business Where yet had I said or done any thing worse than other there wanted not Sir Henry Vane to discover it At this Committee many things were proposed diversly for the Aid and Assistance of the King and many Proposals rejected as Illegal At last the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland propos'd the calling of a Parliament Much was not said against this but much said for it Nor indeed was it safe for any Man to declare against it after it was once publickly moved So a Parliament was resolved on and called against April 13. 1640. At that time it sat down and many Tumultuary Complaints were made by the Scots against the Bishops and Church Government in England and with great vehemency against my self All this while the King could get no Money to Aid him against the Scottish Rebellion At last after many Attempts Sir Henry Vane told the King plainly that it was in vain to expect longer or to make any other overture to them For no Money wou'd be had against the Scots Hereupon his Majesty called all his Lords of Council together and upon Maij 5. being Tuesday at Six in the Morning they met in the Council-Chamber I by the mistake of the Messenger was warned
Peace of both Kingdoms which must be little less than a Miracle if he do As for my Hand that it was at the Warrant of Restraint of the Commissioners sent from the Parliament c. This also is but a meer clamour to bring me into further hatred which hath been their aim all along For why else is my Hand picked out alone whereas the Hands of all for ought I know that were then present at the Committee were subscribed to that Warrant And yet it seems no Hand hath troubled them but mine And for these Commissioners seeking the Peace of the Kingdom I will not offer to enter upon their Thoughts what they sought but leave it to future times that will discover the success of things and by it open the aim of the Agents how they sought the Peace of these Kingdoms But yet they go on For when we had say they by our Declarations Remonstrances and Representations manifested the Truth of our Intentions and Lawfulness of our Actions to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England when the late Parliament would not be moved to assist or enter into a War against us maintaining our Religion and our Liberties Canterbury did not only advise the breaking up of that High and Honourable Court to the great grief and hazard of the Kingdom but which is without Example did sit still in the Convocation and make Canons and Constitutions against us and our Just and Necessary defence They did indeed offer by many Pamphlets Printed and sent into England to manifest the Truth of their Intentions which was to join close with their Party here and come and gain some good Booty in England And this end they have obtained But the lawfulness of their Actions they neither have nor can make good to any Impartial and Judicious Reader of them And whereas they say they have made the lawfulness of them manifest to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England you must know that they are only such English as joyn with them in their Plot or at least in Affection to Religion And 't is easie to make any thing that fits their Humour and comes from their Associats manifest enough But God forbid these should be all the good Subjects of England which it may too justly be feared are none of them And yet it cannot be denied but that England hath at this day much too many of these good Subjects They add further that the late Parliament would not assist nor enter into a War against them I believe that is true and I leave the Parliament to give their own Reasons why they would not But I am sure that which follows is most untrue That I gave Advice for the breaking of it up as appears by that which I have formerly set down and will not repeat And I shall ever wish from my Heart that the Kingdom may never be hazarded more than it hath been by my Counsels and then by God's Blessing it shall be a happier Kingdom than the youngest now alive are like to see it if things go on in the Track they now are Next they say that without all Example I sat still in Convocation though the Parliament were risen Without Example What is that to them if it were so But the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury have sate in Convocation and made Canons too when no Parliament hath been sitting as is most manifest by the Records of that See Yea but there is no Example of it since the Reformation Be it so Nor is it for all that forbidden in the Statute of the submission of the Clergy 25 H. 8. so they sit by the King 's Writ And yet here I was so careful as that I caused the great Lawyers of the Kingdom to be consulted abaut it and followed their Judgments as is before expressed And for the Canons which were made they were not against them One branch indeed of the first Canon is against Subjects bearing Arms against their King offensive or defensive under any pretence whatsoever But this as it is the Antient Doctrine which the Church of Christ hath ever Taught in all times and places So is it not against them at all unless they against Christian Religion and Natural All giance bear Arms against their King But if they do or have done so the Canon that was not made against them hits them full And in this Case let them pretend what they list their Defence can neither be Just nor Necessary Yea but they say farther that I Ordained under all highest pains That hereafter the Clergy shall Preach four times in the Year such Doctrine as is contrary not only to our Proceedings but to the Doctrine of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks and tending to the utter Slavery and Ruine of all States and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This goes high indeed if it were as full in proof as 't is loud in expression But here is not one shew of Proof added either from Reason or Authority Divine or Humane more than their bare word And therefore I must answer it in the same Key First then 't is true that in the Preface of the first Canon every Minister is injoyned under a Penalty to Publish to his People the Exposition of Regal Power contained in that Canon and this once every quarter of a Year So then if the Doctrine contained in that Canon be true and it was approved for Truth by the whole National Synod of England then all this high Charge falls low enough Besides it will concern them to consider well what their Proceedings have been For as for this Canon it is according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church And they surely were both Pious and Sound Divines that lived in it and I for my part shall hold no Man a Sound Divine that runs contrary to it Now that the Primitive Christians were of Opinion that Subjects ought not to take Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any pretence whatsoever which are the words in our Canon which they are so angry with no not for or under pretence of Religion see the Proofs in the Margin For in the most bitter Times of Persecution for the very highest points of Religion whatever Miseries they indured they still contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience And that too not out of any want of Power but will to hurt And if the Doctrine of other Reformed Churches be contrary to this they shall do well to shew it and then I 'll give such farther Answer as is fit But if the Canon be contrary to the Judgment of sound Politiques I know not which they call sound For if they mean such as are of their Feather I think their Judgments are alike Sound that is neither And if they mean Learned and well experienced Politiques I believe they will be able to shew none of
all the Proof here made mentions him only by whom the Kings Pleasure is signified not him that procures the Preferment So the Docket in this Case no Proof at all The Fifth Charge was a Paper Intituled Considerations for the Church Three Exceptions against them The Observation of the King's Declaration Art 3. The Lecturers Art 5. And the High-Commission and Prohibitions Art 10 11. The Paper I desired might be all Read Nothing in them against either Law or Religion And for Lecturers a better care taken and with more Ease to the People and more Peace to the Church by a Combination of Conformable Neighbouring Ministers in their turns and not by some one Humorous Man who too often mis-leads the People Secondly my Copy of Considerations came from Arch-Bishop Harsnet in which was some sour Expression concerning Emanuel and Sidney Colleges in Cambridge which the King in his Wisdom thought fit to leave out The King's Instructions upon these Considerations are under Mr. Baker's Hand who was Secretary to my Predecessor And they were sent to me to make Exceptions to them if I knew any in regard of the Ministers of London whereof I was then Bishop And by this that they were thus sent unto me by my Predecessor 't is manifest that this account from the several Dioceses to the Arch-Bishop and from him to his Majesty once a Year was begun before my time Howsoever if it had not I should have been glad of the Honour of it had it begun in mine For I humbly conceive there cannot be a better or a safer way to preserve Truth and Peace in the Church than that once a Year every Bishop should give an account of all greater Occurrences in the Church to his Metropolitan and he to the King Without which the King who is the Supream is like to be a great Stranger to all Church Proceedings The Sixth Charge was about Dr Sibthorp's Sermon that my Predecessor opposed the Printing of it and that I opposed him to Affront the Parliament Nothing so my Lords Nothing done by me to oppose or affront the One or the Other This Sermon came forth when the Loan was not yet settled in Parliament The Lords and the Judges and the Bishops were some for some against it And if my Judgment were Erroneous in that Point it was mis-led by Lords of great Honour and Experience and by Judges of great knowledge in the Law But I did nothing to affront any 'T is said that I inserted into the Sermon that the People may not refuse any Tax that is not unjustly laid I conceive nothing is justly laid in that kind but according to Law Gods and Mans. And I dare not say the People may refuse any thing so laid For Jus Regis the Right of a King which is urged against me too I never went farther than the Scriptures lead me Nor did I ever think that Jus Regis mentioned 1 Sam 8 is meant of the Ordinary and just Right of Kings but of that Power which such as Saul would be would assume unto themselves and make it right by Power Then they say I expunged some things out of it As first The Sabbath and put instead of it the Lords Day What 's my Offence Sabbath is the Jews Word and the Lords-Day the Christians Secondly about Evil Counseilors to be used as Haman The Passage as there Expressed was very Scandalous and without just Cause upon the Lords of the Council And they might justly have thought I had wanted Discretion should I have left it in Thirdly that I expunged this that Popery is against the first and the second Commandment If I did it it was because it is much doubted by Learned Men whether any thing in Popery is against the first Commandment or denies the Unity of the God-head And Mr. Perkins who Charges very home against Popery lays not the Breach of the first Commandment upon them And when I gave Mr. Brown this Answer In his last Reply he asked why I left out both Why I did it because its being against the second is common and obvious and I did not think it worthy the standing in such a Sermon when it could not be made good against the first But they demanded why I should make any Animadversions at all upon the Sermon It was thus The Sermon being presented to his Majesty and the Argument not common he committed the Care of Printing it to Bishop Mountain the Bishop of London and four other of which I was one And this was the Reason of the Animadversions now called mine As also of the Answer to my Predecessors Exceptions now Charged also and called mine But it was the Joint Answer of the Committee And so is that other Particular also In which the whole Business is left to the Learned in the Laws For though the Animadversions be in my Hand yet they were done at and by the Committee only I being puny Bishop was put to write them in my Hand The Seventh Charge was Dr Manwaring's Business and Preferment It was handled before only resumed here to make a Noise and so passed it over The Eighth Charge was concerning some Alterations in the Prayers made for the Fifth of November and in the Book for the Fast which was Published An 1636. And the Prayers on Coronation Day 1. First for the Fast-Book The Prayer mentioned was altered as is Expressed but it was by him that had the Ordering of that Book to the Press not by me Yet I cannot but approve the Reason given for it and that without any the least approbation of Merit For the Abuse of Fasting by thinking it Meritorious is the thing left out whereas in this Age and Kingdom when and where set Fastings of the Church are cryed down there can be little fear of that Erroneous Opinion of placing any Merit in Fasting 2 Secondly for the Prayers Published for the Fifth of November and Coronation Day The Alterations were made either by the King himself or some about him when I was not in Court And the Books sent me with a Command for the Printing as there altered I made stay till I might wait upon his Majesty I found him resolved upon the alterations nor in my judgment could I justly except against them His Majesty then gave Warrant to the Books themselves with the alterations in them and so by his Warrant I commanded the Printing And I then shewed both the Books to the Lords who Viewed them and acknowledged his Ma jesty ' Hand with which not his Name only but the whole Warrant was written And here I humbly desired three things might be observed and I still desire it First with what Conscience this passage out of my Speech in the Star Chamber was urged against me for so it was and fiercely by Mr. Nicolas to prove that I had altered the Oath at the King's Coronation because the Prayers appointed for the Anniversary of the Coronation were
within it for the Reasons formerly alledged 2. Because an Endeavour to subvert Laws is of so great a Latitude and Uncertainty that every Action not Warranted by Law may be thereby extended to be a Treason In the Sixth Report in Mildmays Case Fol. 42. where a Conveyance was made in Tail with a Proviso if he did go about or attempt to discontinue the Entail the same should be void It was resolved the Proviso was void and the principal Reason was that these Words attempt or go about are Words uncertain and void in Law And the Words of the Book are very observable viz. God defend that Inheritances and Estates of Men should depend upon such incertainties for that Misera est Servitus ubi Jus est vagum quod non definitur in Jure quid fit conatus and therefore the Rule of the Law doth decide this point Non efficit conatus nisi sequitur effectus and the Law doth reject Conations and goings about as things uncertain which cannot be put in issue These are the Words of the Book And if so considerable in Estates your Lordships we conceive will hold it far more considerable in a Case of Life which is of highest Consequence And if it should be said this Law of 25. Ed. 3. takes notice of Compassing and Imagining We answer it is in a Particular declared by that Law to be Treason in Compassing the death of the King But this of Endeavouring to subvert Laws not declared by that or any other Law to be a Treason And if it should be granted that this Law might in any Case admit any other Fact to be Treason by Inference or Construction other than is therein particularly declared which we conceive it cannot Yet it is not Imaginable that a Law introduced purposely to limit and ascertain Crimes of so high Consequence should by Construction or Inference be subject to a Construction of admitting so uncertain and indefinite a thing as an endeavour to subvert the Law is it being not comprised within the Letter of that Law 3. That the Subversion of the Law is an impossible thing therefore an Endeavour to do an act which cannot be effected cannot be Treason 4. That in all times the Endeavouring to subvert the Laws hath been conceived no determinate Crime but rather an Aggravation only of a Crime than otherwise And therefore hath been usually joyned as an Aggravation or result of Crimes below Treason As appears in the Parliament Roll 28 H. 6. num 28. to num 47. in the Case of the Duke of Suffolk where the Commons having in Parliament preferred Articles of Treason against him did not make that any part of their Charge Yet in the same Parliament and within few Days after the First being in February the latter in March Exhibiting other Articles against him they therein Charged all the Misprisions Offences and Deeds therein mentioned to have been the cause of the Subversion of Laws and Justice and the Execution thereof and nigh likely to tend to the Destruction of the Realm So as it appears it was then conceived an Offence of another Nature and not a Treason And it appears as well by the Articles exhibited in Parliament 21 H. 8. against Cardinal Woolsey as by Indictment in the Kings Bench against Ligham 23 H. 8. Rot. 25. That the Cardinal did Endeavour to subvert Antiquissimas Leges hujus Regni Vniversumque hoc Regnum Angliae Legibus Imperialibus Subjugare which although it be a Charge of subverting the ancient Laws of the Kingdom and to introduce new and Arbitrary Laws yet neither upon the Articles or Indictment was the same imputed to be Treason but ended in a Charge of a Premunire And if it shall be said that Empson 1 H. 8. had Judgment and Died for it upon an Indictment in London We answer 1. This was not the Substance of the Indictment but only an Aggravation 2. And if Charged it is with an actual subverting not with an Endeavour to subvert the Laws and is joyned with divers other Offences 3. Which is a full Answer The Indictment upon which he was Tryed was Paschae 2 H. 8. at Northampton and was for Levying War against the King a Treason declared by the Law of 25 Ed. 3. upon which he was Convicted and Suffered and no proceeding upon the other Indictment ever had And as to the second General Charge of Endeavouring to subvert Religion This no more than that former of subverting the Laws is any Treason within any Law established in this Kingdom And herein as to the Charge of the Endeavour we shall rely upon what hath been already said upon the former With this further That until that happy Reformation begun in the time of King Edward VI. there was another Frame of Religion established by Law which was conceived until then to have been the True Religion and any Endeavour to Change or Alter it prosecuted with great Extremities Yet was not any Attempt to alter it conceived to be a Treason but several especial Acts of Parliaments were made for particular Punishments against Persons who should attempt the Alteration thereof Witness the Statute of 5 R. 2. Cap. 5. and 2 H. 5. Cap. 7. In which latter although mention is made of endeavouring to destroy and subvert the Christian Faith yet was not the Offence made or declared to be Treason And at this day Heresie of what kind soever is not punishable but according to the old course of the Law And we may add the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. Cap. 12. that of 1 Mariae 12. which makes it but Felony to attempt an Alteration of Religion by force The worst kind of Attempt certainly To the third and last general Charge Labouring to subvert the Rights of Parliaments To the Labouring to do it we shall add nothing to what hath been said to the Charge of Endeavour in the two former only thus much we shall observe That in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. amongst the many Articles preferred against the Duke of Ireland and others the 14th Article contains a Charge much of this Nature viz. That when the Lords and others in divers Parliaments had moved to have a good Government in the Realm they had so far incensed the King that he caused divers to depart from his Parliament so that they durst not for fear of Death advise for the good of the Kingdom Yet when the Lords came to single out the Articles what was or was not Treason That although a Charge transcending this was none of the Articles by them declared to be Treason My Lords Having done with these Generals it remains only that we apply our selves to those other Articles which we conceive were insisted upon as Instances conducing and applied to some of the Generals we have handled Wherein if the Generals be not Treason the Particular Instances cannot be and on the other side if the Instances fall
to know more of the Secret History of the Transactions preceeding and accompanying the Grand Rebellion than the whole 〈◊〉 besides who hath confidently Related that when the Earl of Strafford enter'd into the Service of King Charles I. and began to be employed as Chief Minister of State he covenanted with him that no Session of Parliament should be called or held during his Ministry Now the 〈◊〉 of this Report appears from what the Arch-Bishop hath wrote in his Diary at Dec. 5. 1639. that the first movers for calling a Parliament at that time were the Earl of Strafford and himself Nothing also can reflect more Honour upon the Memory of any Person that what the Arch-Bishop in the following History cap. 9. relateth of the Earl's rejecting the unworthy Proposition made to him by Mr. Denzell Hollis in the Name of the Leading Men of the House of Commons a matter wholly unknown before But to proceed with Prynne soon after the Martyrdom of the Arch-Bishop whether prompted by his unwearied Malice or by his eternal itch of scribling or incited by the Order of the House of Commons made March 4. 1644 5. desiring him to Print and Publish all the Proceedings concerning the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Trial He immediately set himself to Defame the Arch-Bishop and justifie the Proceedings of the Rebel Parliament against him more at large To which purpose he Published in 1646. in 66 Sheets in Folio his Necessary Introduction to the History of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Trial Which in the Preface he calleth A New Discovery of sundry Plots and hidden Works of Darkness Containing bitter Invectives and Accusations against the whole Proceedings of the Court from the time of the Treaty about the Spanish Match to that day and labouring to prove that both King James and Charles designed to overthrow the 〈◊〉 Religion and to introduce Popery using Arch-Bishop Laud as their chief Instrument in that bad Design An Accusation which neither himself nor any other Man in his Wits ever believed Soon after this in the same Year 1646. was Published by the same Author Canterbury's Doom or the First Part of a compleat History of the Trial of the Arch-Bishop in 145 Sheets in Folio containing as himself acknowledgeth only the History of the Preliminaries of the Trial till the commencement of it together with the Commons Evidence his Answers to it and their Replies upon him in maintenance of the first general Branch of their Charge of High Treason against him to wit his Trayterous endeavours to alter and subvert God's True Religion by Law Established among us to introduce Popery and to reconcile the Church of England to the Church of Rome The remaining part of the Trial he engaged by Promise made both in the beginning and end of that Book to Compleat and Publish with all convenient speed but never made good his Vndertaking nor as I believe ever did intend it For he well knew that however what was urged against the Arch-Bishop at his Trial in this matter and was largely amplified in his History in proof of the Arch-Bishop's endeavour to subvert the Established Religion carried with it some shew of Truth in the Judgment of a then miserably deluded People who were cheated into a Belief cursed be the wilful Authors of that Cheat which in great measure yet continueth that good Works Building Repairing Consecrating and Adorning Churches bowing at the Name of Jesus prosiration to God in Prayer wearing Copes retaining the use of Canonical Hours in Prayer and such like Decent Vsages and Ceremonies were downright Popery for these and such like were the Proofs of that Accusation brought against the Arch-Bishop Yet that all which they did or could produce in confirmation of their other Heads of Accusation against the Arch-Bishop carried not with it the least appearance of proof For which Reason Prynne began the History of his Trial with the Charge and Proofs of Popery although that was not the first but the last Head of Accusation brought against him and canvassed in the course of his Trial. However the Godly Cheat once begun was by any means to be continued and therefore it was pretended by Prynne and other Adversaries of the Arch-Bishop that although to give him his due for such are Prynne's own words pag. 462. the Arch-Bishop made as full as gallant as pithy a Defence of so bad a Cause and spake as much for himself as was possible for the Wit of Man to invent and that with so much Art Sophistry Vivacity Oratory Audacity and Confidence without the least acknowledgment of Guilt in any thing c. yet that after all the Crimes objected being undeniably proved against him and himself thereupon despairing of being able to justifie and clear his Innocence either to the then present or to succeeding times did burn all the Notes of his Answers and Defence before his Death of purpose to prevent their publication after it Which Calumny Prynne hath twice in Epist. Dedic and pag. 461. repeated pretending to have received the knowledge of it from the Arch-Bishop's own Secretary Mr. Dell. The falsity of this base Report appears sufficiently from this History wrote by the Arch-Bishop and now Published He had begun to compose it before the end of the Year 1641. and continued it from time to time till the 3d of January 1644 5. which was the seventh day before his Execution For on the 4th of January being acquainted that Sentence had passed upon him in the House of Lords he conveyed the Original Copy of his History into safe hands and prepared himself for Death That he had begun it before the end of 1641. and augmented it from time to time appears evidently from several places of it And although in the Narration of his Trial many things said or alledged in the Recapitulation on the last days be interwoven with the History of every days Trial yet all those passages were added by him afterwards on the blank pages which he had for that purpose left over-against every written page in the Original Copy and from thence were according to his directions transcribed in the other Copy into one entire Narration Hence it comes to pass which the Reader will easily observe that the Arch-Bishop writing down the Transactions of every day as they happened hath left so many plain Indications of haste and sometimes of heat Some things seem to have been wrote while his Spirits had not yet recovered a sedate Temper many improprieties of Language committed and other defects admitted which the Arch-Bishop himself being sensible of had wrote in the first leaf of his Book Non apposui manum ultimam W. Cant. That the most Reverend Author wrote this History for the publick Vindication of himself cannot be doubted Nay himself more than once affirmeth that he intended it for the Vindication of himself to the whole Christian World and chiefly indeed for the defence of himself and the Church of England in Foreign parts where
long Service He was pleased to say He had given me nothing but Gloucester which he well knew was a Shell without a Kernel June 29. His Majesty gave me the Grant of the Bishoprick of St. Davids being St. Peter's day The general expectation in Court was that I should then have been made Dean of Westminster and not Bishop of St. Davids The King gave me leave to hold the Presidentship of St. John Baptist's Colledge in Oxon in my Commendam with the Bishoprick of St. Davids But by Reason of the strictness of that Statute which I will not violate nor my Oath to it under any colour I am resolved before my Consecration to leave it Octob. 10. I was chosen Bishop of St. Davids Octob. 10. 1621. I resigned the Presidentship of St. Johns in Oxford Novemb. 17. 1621. I Preached at Westminster Novemb. 5. I was Consecrated Bishop of St. Davids Novemb. 18. 1621. at London-House Chappel by the Reverend Fathers the Lords Bishops of London Worcester Chichester Elye Landaffe Oxon. The Arch-Bishop being thought Irregular for casual Homicide Januar. 6. The Parliament then sitting was dissolved by Proclamation without any Session Januar. 14. The King's Letters came to the Arch-Bishop and all the Bishops about London for a Contribution of the Clergy toward recovery of the Palatinat Januar. 21. The Arch-Bishop's Letters came to me about this business Januar. 25. I sent these Letters and my own into the Diocess Febr. 17. I Preached at Westminster All my former Sermons are omitted March 9. I heard of the death of L. B. He died Januar. 17. between 6 and 7 in the Morning March 18. Dr. Theodore Price went towards Ireland out of London about the Commission appointed there March 24. I Preached at Court commanded to Print Anno 1622. April 13. The King renewed my Commendam April 16. I was with his Majesty and the Prince's Highness to give notice of Letters I received of a Treasonable Sermon Preached in Oxford on Sunday April 14. by one Mr. Knight of 〈◊〉 April 14. Sunday I waited at the Entertainment of Count Swartzenburge the Emperour's Ambassadour in the Parliament House April 23. Being the Tuesday in Easter week the King sent for me and set me into a course about the Countess of Buckingham who about that time was wavering in point of Religion April 24. Dr. Francis White and I met about this May 10. I went to the Court to Greenwich and came back in Coach with the Lord Marquess Buckingham My promise then to give his Lordship the Discourse he spake to me for May 12. I Preached at Westminster May 19. I delivered my Lord Marquess Buckingham the Paper concerning the difference between the Church of England and Rome in point of Salvation c. May 23. My first Speech with the Countess of Buckingham May 24. The Conference between Mr. Fisher a Jesuit and my self before the Lord Marquess Buckingham and the Countess his Mother I had much Speech with her after June 9. Being Whitsunday my Lord Marquess Buckingham was pleased to enter upon a near Respect to me The particulars are not for Paper June 15. I became C. to my Lord of Buckingham And June 16. Being Trinity Sunday he Received the Sacrament at Greenwich June 22. c. I saw two Books in Folio of Sir Robert Cottons In the one was all the Order of the Reformation in the time of Hen 8. The Original Letters and Dispatches under the Kings and the Bishops c. own hands In the other were all the Preparatory Letters Motives c. for the suppression of the Abbies their suppression and value in the Originals An Extract of both which Books I have per Capita July 5. I first entred into Wales July 9. I began my first Visitation at the Colledge in Brecknocke and Preached July 24. I visited at St. Davids and Preached July 25. August 6 7. I visited at Carmarthen and Preached The Chancellor and my Commissioners visited at Emlyn c. July 16 17. and at Haverford-West July 19 20. Aug. 15. I set forwards towards England from Carmarthen Septemb. 1. My Answer given to His Majesty about 9 Articles delivered in a Book from Mr Fisher the Jesuit These Articles were delivered me to consider of Aug. 28. The Discourse concerning them the same Night at Windsor in the presence of the King the Prince the Lord Marquess Buckingham his Lady and his Mother Septemb. 18. aut circiter There was notice given me that Mr. Fisher had spread certain Copies of the Conference had between him and me Maij 24. into divers Recusants hands Octob. .... I got the sight of a Copy c. in October made an Answer to it Octob. 27. I Preached at Westminster Decemb. 12. My Ancient Friend Mr R Peashall died horâ 6. matutinâ It was Thursday and Sol in Capri. Lucia Virgo in some Almanacks a day before in some a day after it Decemb. 16. My Lord Marquess Buckingham's Speech to me about the same Keye Decemb. 25. I Preached at St. Giles without Cripplegate I was three times with the King this Christmas and Read over to him the Answer which I had made to Fisher which he commanded should be Printed and I desired it might pass in a third Person under the Name of R. B. Januar. 11. My Lord of Buckingham and I in the inner Chamber at York House Quòd est Deus Salvator noster Christus Jesus Januar. 17. I received a Letter from E. B. to continue my favour as Mr. R. P. had desired me Januar. 19. I Preached at Westminster Januar. 27. I went out of London about the Parsonage of Creeke given me into my Commendam Januar. 29. I was instituted at Peterborough to the Parsonage of Creeke Januar. 31. I was inducted into Creeke Februar 2. Being Sunday and Candlemas day I Preached and Read the Articles at Creeke Febr. 5. Wednesday I came to London I went that Night to his Majesty hearing he had sent for me He delivered me a Book to read and observe It was a Tract of a Capuchin that had once been a Protestant He was now with the French Ambassadour The Tract was to prove that Christ's Body was in two places at once in the Apparition to St Paul Act IX Feb. 9. I gave the King an account of this Book Febr. 9. Promovi Edmundum Provant Scotum in Presbyterum Primogenitus meus fuit in Domino I Ordained Edmund Provant a Scot Priest He was my First-begotten in the Lord. Febr. 17. Munday the Prince and the Marquess Buckingham set forward very secretly for Spain Febr. 21. I wrote to my Lord of Buckingham into Spain Febr. 22. Saturday I fell very ill and was very suddenly plucked down in 4 days I was put into the Commission of Grievances There were in the Commission the Lord Marquess Buckingham Lord Arundel Lord Pembroke Bishop of Winchester and my self The Proclamation came out for this Febr. 14. March 9. I Ordained Thomas Owen Bat of Arts Deacon March 10. I
the ancient Manner might be observed by his Majesties Command went together to him The King viewed all the Regalia Put on St. Edward's Tunicks Commanded me to read the Rubricks of direction All being read we carried back the Regalia to the Church of Westminster and laid them up in their place Febr. 2. Thursday and Candlemas day His Majesty King Charles was Crowned I then officiated in the place of the Dean of Westminster The King entred the Abby-Church a little before Ten a Clock and it was past Three before he went out of it It was a very Bright Sun-shining Day The Solemnity being ended in the great Hall at Westminster when the King delivered into my hands the Regalia which are kept in the Abby-Church of Westminster he did which had not before been done deliver to me the Sword called Curtana and two others which had been carried before the King that day to be Kept in the Church together with the other Regalia I returned and Offered them Solemnly at the Altar in the Name of the King and laid them up with the rest In so great a Ceremony and amidst an incredible concourse of People nothing was lost or broke or disordered The Theatre was clear and free for the King the Peers and the Business in hand and I heard some of the Nobility saying to the King in their return that they never had seen any Solemnity although much less performed with so little Noise and so great Order Febr. 6. Monday I Preached before King Charles and the House of Peers at the opening of the Parliament Febr. 11. Saturday At the desire of the Earl of Warwick a Conference was held concerning the Cause of Richard Montague in the Duke of Buckingham's House between Dr. Morton and Dr. Preston on the one side and Dr. White on the other Febr. 17. Friday The foresaid Conference was renewed in the same place many of the Nobility being present Febr. 21. Shrove-Tuesday the Duke of Buckingham sent for me to come to him and then gave me in Command that c. Febr. 23. Thursday I sought the Duke at Chelsey There I first saw his Son and Heir Charles lately born I found not the Duke Returning I found his Servant who was seeking me I went immediately with him and found the Duke at Court I related to him what I had done Febr. 24. Friday and S. Matthias's Day I was with the Duke in his own House almost Three Hours where with his own hand c. he commanded me to add somewhat I did so and brought it to him next Day Febr. 25. Febr. 26. First Sunday in Lent in the Evening I presented to his Majesty King Charles my Sermon which I had Preached at the opening of the Parliament being now Printed by his Majesties Command Feb. 27. Munday The Danger which hapened to King Charles from his Horse which having broken the two Girts of the Saddle and the Saddle together with the Rider fallen under his Belly stood trembling until the King having received no hurt c. March 1. Wednesday and the Festival of S David a Clamour arose in the House of Commons against the Duke of Buckingham more particularly for stopping a Ship called The St Peter of Newhaven after Sentence pronounced From that day there were perpetual Heats in the House March 6. I resigned the Parsonage of Ibstock which I held in Commendam March 11. Dr. Turner a Physician offered in the House Seven Queries against the Duke of Buckingham yet grounded upon no other Foundation than what he received from publick Fame as himself confessed It was then Saturday March 16 Thursday a certain Dutchman Named John Oventrout proposed to shew a way how the West-Indies might shake off the Yoke of Spain and put themselves under the Subjection of our King Charles The Matter was referred to be disclosed to the Earl of Totnes the Lord Conway Principal Secretary and because he said that his Stratagem did depend in a great measure upon Religion I was added to them The Old Man proposed somewhat about the taking of Arica Yet shewed not to us any Method how it might be taken unless it were that he would have the Minds of the Inhabitants to be divided in the Cause of Religion by sending in among them the Catechism of Heidelberg We dismissed the Man and returned not a whit the wiser Anno 1626. Martij 26. Die Solis Misit me ad Regem D. B. Ibi certiorem feci Regem de duobus negotijs quae c. Gratias egit Rex Serenissimus Martij 29. Rex Carolus utramque Domum Parliamenti alloquitur praecipuè verò Inferiorem per se per Honoratissimum Dominum Custodem Magni Sigilli in Palatio de White-Hall In multis Domum Inferiorem reprehendit Multa etiam adjecit de Duce Buckinghamiae c. In Convocatione illo Die habitâ multa agitata sunt de Concione quam habuit Gabr. Goodman Episcopus Glocestr coram Rege Die Solis praecedente Dominicâ 5. Quadragesimae April 5. Die Mercurij Manè misit Rex ut Episcopi Norwicensis Lichfeldensis Menevensis nosmetipsos coram sisteremus Adsumus ego Litchfeldensis Norwicensis Rus abijt Accipimus Mandata Regis circa c. Redimus April 12. Die Mercurij Hor. 9. ante Meridiem convenimus Archiepiscopus Cant. Episcopi Winton Dunelm Meneven jussi à Rege consulere de Concione quam habuit coram Majestate Regiâ Episcopus Glocestrensis Dr. Goodman Dom. 5. Quadrag ultimò elapsâ Consulimus Responsum damus Regi quaedam minus cautè dicta falsò nihil Nec innovatum quidquam ab eo in Ecclesiâ Anglicanâ Optimum fore si iterum tempore à seipso electo iterum Concionem haberet ostenderet quomodò in quibus malè acoeptus intellectusque fuit ab Auditoribus Eâ nocte post horam nonam Regi renuntiavi quae in Mandatis accepi die 5. April alia eo spectantia inter caetera de Impropriationibus reddendis Multa gratissimè Rex ego quùm prius disserui de modo April 14. In Febrem incidit Dux Buckinghamiae Dies erat Veneris April 19. Die Mercurij Petitio Joh. Digbye Comitis Bristoliensis contra Ducem Buckinghamiae lecta est in Domo Superiori Parlamenti Acris illa quae perniciem minatur alteri partium April 20. Die Veneris Retulit Cognitionem totius negotij etiam Petitionis Comitis Bristoliensis Domui Parlamenti Rex Carolus April 21. Dies erat Sabbati Misit Dux Buckinghamius ut ad se venirem Ibi audivi quid Primicerius Regius Dom. Joh. Cocus contra me suggessit Thesaurario Angliae ille Duci Domine miserere Servi tui April 22. Die Solis Misit Rex ut omnes Episcopi cum ipso essemus Horâ quartâ pomeridianâ Adsumus 14. numero Reprehendit quòd in causis Ecclesiae hoc tempore Parlamenti silemus non notum facimus ei quid Vtile vel Inutile foret
me in my Sleep having been dead two Years before at least He seemed to me in very good plight and merry enough I told him what I had done for his Widow and Children He after a little thought answered That the Executor had satisfied him for those Legacies while he was yet alive And presently looking upon some Papers in his Study adjoyning he added that it was so He moreover whispering in my Ear told me that I was the Cause why the Bishop of Lincoln was not again admitted into Favour and to Court Apr. 4. Wednesday When his Majesty King Charles forgave to Doctor Donne certain slips in a Sermon Preached on Sunday Apr. 1. what he then most graciously said unto me I have wrote in my Heart with 〈◊〉 Characters and great 〈◊〉 to God and the King Apr. 7. Saturday Going to Court to wait upon the King at Supper in going out of the Coach my foot stumbling I fell headlong I never had a more dangerous fall but by God's mercy I escaped with a light bruise of my Hip only Apr. 24. Tuesday There were then first sent to me the Exceptitions which the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Exhibited against Doctor Sibthorp's Sermon and what followed April 29. Sunday I was made Privy-Councellour to his Majesty King Charles God grant it may conduce to his Honour and to the good of the Kingdom and the Church May 13. Whitsunday I Preached before the King c. Junij 7 8. I attended King Charles from London to Southwick by Portsmouth Junij 11. His Majesty dined a-board the Triumph where I attended him June 17. The Bishoprick of London was granted me at Southwick June 22. We came to London June 24. I was commanded to go all the Progress June 27. The Duke of Buckingham set forwards towards the Isle of Ree June 30. The Progress began to Oatlands July 4. The King lost a Jewel in Hunting of a 1000 l. value That day the Message was sent by the King for the Sequestring of A. B. C. July 7. Saturday-night I dreamed that I had lost two Teeth The Duke of Buckingham took the Isle of Ree July 26. I attended the King and Queen at Wellingburrough July 29. The first News came from my Lord Duke of his Success Sunday August 12. The second News came from my Lord Duke to Windsor Sunday August 26. The third News came from my Lord Duke to Aldershot Sunday September News came from my Lord Duke to Theobalds The first fear of ill Success News from my Lord Duke to Hampton-Court I went to my Lord of Rochester to consider about A. B. C. and returned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court 〈◊〉 King's Speech to me in the withdrawing Chamber That if any did c. I c. before any thing should sink c. The business of Doctor Bargar Dean of Canterbury began about the Vicaridge of Lidd October The Commission to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and my self then Bath and Wells to Execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction during the Sequestration of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury's Speech that the business could not go well in the Isle of Ree There must be a Parliament some must be Sacrificed that I was as like as any Spoken to Doctor W. The same Speech after spoken to the same Man by Sir Dudlye Diggs I told it when I heard it doubled Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any Reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. Ita Ch. R. The Retreat out of the Isle of Ree November My Lord Duke's return to Court The Countess of Purbeck censured in the High Commission for Adultery December 25. I Preached to the King at White-Hall January 29. Tuesday A resolution at the Council Table for a Parliament to begin March 17. if the Shires go on with levying Money for the Navy c. January 30. Wednesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham's Son was Born the Lord George New Moon die 26. February 5. Tuesday The straining of the back sinew of my right Leg as I went with his Majesty to Hampton-Court I kept in till I Preached at the opening of the Parliament March 17. but I continued lame long after saving that Februar 14. Thursday Saint Valentine's-day I made a shift to go and Christen my Lord Duke's Son the Lord George at Wallingford-House March 17. I Preached at the opening of the Parliament but had much ado to stand it was Munday Anno 1628. June 1. Whitsunday I Preached at White-Hall June 11. My Lord Duke of Buckingham Voted in the House of Commons to be the Cause or Causes of all Grievances in the Kingdom June 12. Thursday I was complained of by the House of Commons for warranting Doctor Manwaring's Sermons to the Press June 13. Dr. Manwaring answered for himself before the Lords and the next day June 14. Being Saturday was Censured After his Censure my Cause was called to the Report And by God's Goodness towards me I was fully cleared in the House The same day the House of Commons were making their Remonstrance to the King One Head was Innovation of Religion Therein they Named my Lord the Bishop of Winchester and my self One in the House stood up and said Now we have Named these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it Sir Edw. Cooke answered Have we not Named my Lord of Buckingham without shewing a Cause and may we not be as bold with them June 17. This Remonstrance was delivered to the King on Tuesday June 26. Thursday The Session of Parliament ended and was Prorogued to October 20. July 11. Tuesday My Conge-deslier was Signed by the King for the Bishoprick of London July 15. Tuesday St. Swithin and fair with us I was Translated to the Bishoprick of London The same day the Lord Weston was made Lord Treasurer August 9. Saturday A terrible salt Rheum in my left Eye had almost put me into a Fever August 12. Tuesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham went towards Portsmouth to go for Rochell August 23. Saturday St Bartholomew's Eve the Duke of Buckingham slain at Portsmouth by one Lieutenant Felton about Nine in the Morning August 24. The News of his Death came to Croydon where it found my self and the Bishops of Winchester Ely and Carlile at the Consecration of Bishop Montague for Chichester with my Lord's Grace August 27. Wednesday Mr. Elphinston brought me a very Gracious Message from his Majesty upon my Lord Duke's Death August 30. As I was going out to meet the Corps of the Duke which that Night was brought to London Sir W Fleetwood brought me very Gracious Letters from the King's Majesty written with his own Hand September 9. Tuesday The first time that I went to Court after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham my dear Lord The Gracious Speech which that Night the King was pleased to use to me September 27. Saturday I fell Sick and came Sick from Hampton-Court Tuesday Septemb. ult I was sore
this set others on work both in the Western and the Northern Parts Till at last by the practice of the Faction there was suddenly a great alteration and nothing so much cryed down as the Canons The comfort is Christ himself had his Osanna turned into a Crucifige in far less Time By this means the Malice of the Time took another occasion to whet it self against me The Synod thus ended and the Canons having this Success but especially the Parliament ending so unhappily The King was very hardly put to it and sought all other means as well as he could to get supply against the Scots But all that he could get proved too little or came too late for that service For the averse party in the late Parliament or by and by after before they parted ordered things so and filled Mens Minds with such strange Jealousies that the King 's good People were almost generally possest that his Majesty had a purpose to alter the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to bring in Slavery upon his People A thing which for ought I know his Majesty never intended But the Parliament-men which would not relieve the King by their meeting in that Assembly came to understand and inform one another and at their return were able to possess their several Countries with the Apprehensions themselves had and so they did Upon this some Lords and others who had by this time made an underhand solemn Confederacy with a strong faction of the Scots brought an Army of them into the Kingdom For all Men know and it hath been in a manner confessed that the Scots durst not have come into England at that Time if they had not been sure of a Party here and a strong one and that the King should be betrayed on all hands as shall after appear By these and the like means the King being not assisted by his Parliament nor having Means enough to proceed with his Forces in due Time the Scots were brought in as is aforesaid upon both King and Kingdom They under the Conduct of Sir Alexander Leshley their General passed the Tyne at Newborne Aug. .... 1640. and took New-castle the next Day after And all this gross Treason though it had no other end than to Confirm a Parliament in Scotland and to make the King call another in England that so they might in a way of Power extort from him what they pleased in both Kingdoms yet Religion was made almost all the pretence both here and there and so in pursuance of that pretence Hatred spread and increased against me for the Service-Book The King hearing that the Scots were moving Posted away to York Aug. 20. being Thursday There he soon found in what Straights he was and thereupon called his Great Council of all his Lords and Prelates to York to be there by September 24. But in regard the Summons was short and suddain he was Graciously pleased to dispense with the Absence of divers both Lords and Bishops and with mine among the rest How things in Particular succeeded there I know not nor belongs it much to the Scope of this short History intended only for my self But the Result of all was a present Nomination of some Lords Commissioners to treat at Rippon about this Great Affair with other Commissioners from the Scotch Army But before this Treaty at Rippon one Melborne or Meldrum Secretary to general Leshly as he was commonly said to be at the Shire-House in Durham when the Country-Gentlemen met with the chief of the Scottish Army about a composition to be made for Payment of Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Day for that County expressed himself in this Manner Septemb. 10. 1640. I wonder that you are so Ignorant that you cannot see what is good for your selves For they in the South are sensible of the good that will ensue and that we came not unsent for and that oftner than once or twice by your own Great Ones There being a Doubt made at these words Great Ones He reply'd your own Lords with farther Discourse These Words were complained of during the Treaty at Rippon to the English Lords Commissioners by two Gentlemen of the Bishoprick of Durham to whom the Words were spoken by Meldrum The Gentlemen were Mr. John Killinghall and Mr. Nicholas Chaytor and they offer'd to Testify the Words upon Oath But the Lords required them only to Write down those Words and set their Hands to them which they did very readily The Lords acquainted the Scotch Commissioners with the Words They sent to Newcastle to make them known to General Leshly He called his Secretary before him questioned him about the Words Meldrum denyed them was that enough against two such Witnesses This Denyal was put in Writing and sent to Rippon Hereupon some of the English Lords Commissioners required that the two Gentlemen should go to Newcastle to the Scotch Camp and there give in their Testimony before General Leshly The two Gentlemen replyed as they had great reason to do that they had rather testify it in any Court of England and could do it with more safety Yet they would go and testify it there so they might have a safe Conduct from the Scottish Commissioners there being as yet no Cessation of Arms. Answer was made by some English Lords that they should have a safe Conduct Hereupon one of the Kings Messengers attendant there was sent to the Scotch Commissioners for a safe Conduct for the Two Gentlemen He brought back Word from the Earl of Dumfermling to whom it was directed that the Two Gentlemen were unwise if they went to give such Testimony at the Camp And then speaking with the Lord Lowdon he came again to the Messenger and told him that such a safe Conduct could not be granted and that he would satisfy the Earl that sent for it who was Francis Earl of Bedford The Messenger returning with this Answer the Gentlemen were dismissed So the business dyed it being not for somebody's safety that this Examination should have proceeded for it is well enough known since that many had their hands in this Treason for Gross Treason it was by the express Words of the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. The Truth of all this will be sworn to by both the Gentlemen yet living and by a very honest grave Divine who was present at all these Passages at Rippon and gave them to me in Writing In this Great Council while the Treaty was proceeding slowly enough it was agreed on that a Parliament should begin at London Nov. 3. following And thither the Commissioners and the Treaty were to follow and they did so After this how things proceeded in Parliament and how long the Scotch Army was continued and at how great a charge to the Kingdom appears olsewhere upon Record for I shall hasten to my own particular and take in no more of the Publick than Necessity shall inforce me to make my sad Story hang together
Novations now spoken of were not then on Foot So that it is evident enough to any Man that will see that these Commotions had another and a higher cause than the present pretended Innovations And if his Majesty had played the King then he needed not have suffered now Besides they are no Fools who have spoken it freely since the Act of Oblivion for the Scottish Business was passed that this great League before mentioned between the discontented Party of both Kingdoms was Consulted on in the Year 1632. and after the King 's being in Scotland Anno 1633. it went on till they took occasion another way to hatch the Cockatrice Egg which was laid so long before But they say these Novations were great besides the Books of Ordination and Homilies So the Books of Ordination and Homilies were great Novations Had they then in Scotland no set Form of Ordination I promise you that 's next Neighbour to no Ordination and no Ordination to no Church formal at least And therefore if this be a Novation among them its high time they had it And for the Homilies if they taught no other Doctrine than was established and current in the Church of Scotland they were no Novations and if they did contain other Doctrine they might have Condemned them and there had been an end Howsoever if these Books be among them in Scotland they were sent thither in King James his Time when the Prelate of Canterbury neither was nor could be the prime cause on Earth of that Novation The other Novations which they proceed unto are first some particular Alterations in matters of Religion pressed upon them without Order and against Law To this I can say nothing till the particular Alterations be named Only this in the general be they what they will the Scottish Bishops were to blame if they pressed any thing without Order or against Law And sure I am the Prelate of Canterbury caused them not nor would have consented to the causing of them had he known them to be such The two other Novations in which they instance are the Book of Canons and the Liturgy which they say contain in them many dangerous Errours in Matter of Doctrine To these how dangerous soever they seem I shall give I hope a very sufficient and clear answer and shall ingenuously set down whatsoever I did either in or to the Book of Canons and the Liturgy and then leave the ingenuous Reader to judge how far the Prelate of Canterbury is the prime cause on Earth of these Things ART I. AND first that this Prelate was the Author and Vrger of some particular Things which made great disturbance amongst us we make manifest first by Fourteen Letters Subscribed W. Cant. in the space of two Years to one of our pretended Bishops Ballatine wherein he often enjoyns him and our other pretended Bishops to appear in the Chappel in their Whites contrary to the Custom of our Kirk and to his own Promise made to the pretended Bishop of Edinburgh at the Coronation That none of them after that Time should be more pressed to wear those Garments thereby moving him against his Will to put them on for that time Here begins the first Charge about the Particular Alterations And first they Charge me with Fourteen Letters written by me to Bishop Ballantyne He was then Bishop of Dunblain and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal there He was a Learned and a Grave Man and I did write divers Letters to him as well as to some other Bishops and some by Command but whether just fourteen or no I know not But sure I am their Love to me is such that were any thing worse than other in any of these Letters I should be sure to hear of it First then They say I injoyned wearing of Whites c. surely I understand my self a great deal better than to injoyn where I have no Power Perhaps I might express that which His Majesty Commanded me when I was Dean of his Majesty's Chappel here as this Reverend Bishop was in Scotland And His Majesty's Express Command was that I should take that care upon me that the Chappel there and the Service should be kept answerable to this as much as might be And that the Dean should come to Prayers in his Form as likewise other Bishops when they came thither And let my Letters be shewed whether there be any Injoyning other than this and this way And I am confident His Majesty would never have laid this Task upon me had he known it to be either without Order or against Law Next I am Charged that concerning these Whites I brake my Promise to the Bishop of Edinburgh Truly to the uttermost of my Memory I cannot recall any such Passage or Promise made to that Reverend and Learned Prelate And I must have bin very ill advised had I made any such Promise having no Warrant from his Majesty to ingage for any such thing As for that which follows that he was moved against his will to put on those Garments Truly he expressed nothing at that time to me that might signifie it was against his Will And his Learning and Judgment were too great to stumble at such External Things Especially such having been the Ancient Habits of the most Reverend Bishops from the descent of many Hundred Years as may appear in the Life of St. Cyprian And therefore the Novation was in the Church of Scotland when her Bishops left them off not when they put them on In these Letters he the Prelate of Canterbury directs Bishop Ballantine to give Order for saying the English Service in the Chappel twice a day For his neglect shewing him that he was disappointed of the Bishoprick of Edinburgh promising him upon his greater care of these Novations advancement to a better Bishoprick For the direction for Reading the English Service it was no other than His Majesty Commanded me to give And I hope it is no Crime for a Bishop of England by His Majesties Command to signifie to a Bishop in Scotland what his pleasure is for Divine Service in his own Chappel Nor was the Reading of the English Liturgy any Novation at all in that place For in the Year 1617. I had the Honour as a Chaplain in Ordinary to wait upon King James of Blessed Memory into Scotland and then the English Service was Read in that Chappel and twice a Day And I had the Honour again to wait upon King Charles as Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal here at his Coronation in Scotland in the Year 1633 And then also was the English Service Read twice a Day in that Chappel And a strict Command was given them by His Majesty that it should be so continued and Allowance was made for it And none of the Scots found any fault with it at that time or after till these Tumults began And for Bishop Ballantyn's missing the Bishoprick of Edinburgh and my promising him
Corpus nostrum est subjectum quo recipitur Many weak Collections and Inferences are made by these Men out of this part of the Communion of the Bodily Presence of Christ but not one Evidence is or can be shewed As for Sectaries I have none nor none can have in this Point For no Men can be Sectaries or Followers of me in that which I never held or maintained And 't is well known I have maintained the contrary and perhaps as strongly as any my Opposits and upon Grounds more agreeable to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church Among these Sectaries which they will needs call mine they say there are which teach them that Christ is received in the Sacrament Corporaliter both Objectivè Subjectivé For this Opinion be it whose it will I for my part do utterly condemn it as grosly Superstitious And for the Person that affirms it they should have done well to name him and the place where he delivers this Opinion Had this been done it had been fair And I would then have clearly acknowledged what Relation if any the Person had to me and more fully have spoken to the Opinion it self when I might have seen the full scope together of all that he delivered But I doubt there is some ill Cause or other why this Author is not named by them Yet the Charge goes on 4. The Book of England abolishes all that may import the Oblation of †an unbloody Sacrifice but here we have besides the preparatory Oblation of the Elements which is neither to be found in the Book of England now nor in King Edward's Book of old The Oblation of the Body and the Blood of Christ which Bellarmin calls Sacrificium Laudis quia Deus per illud magnoperè laudatur This also agrees well with their late Doctrine First I think no Man doubts but that there is and ought to be offered up to God at the Consecration and Reception of this Sacrament Sacrificium Laudis the Sacrifice of Praise And that this ought to be expressed in the Liturgy for the Instruction of the People And these Words We entirely desire thy Fatherly Goodness Mercifully to accept this our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving c. are both in the Book of England and in that which was prepared for Scotland And if Bellarmin do call the Oblation of the Body and the Blood of Christ a Sacrifice of Praise sure he doth well in it for so it is if Bellarmin mean no more by the Oblation of the Body and the Blood of Christ than a Commemoration and a Representation of that great Sacrifice offered up by Christ himself As Bishop Jewel very Learnedly and fully acknowledges But if Bellarmin go farther than this and by the Oblation of the Body and the Blood of Christ mean that the Priest Offers up that which Christ himself did and not a Commemoration of it only he is Erroneous in that and can never make it good But what Bellarmin's Opinion and Meaning is when he calls it Sacrificium Laudis a Sacrifice of Praise I cannot tell till they be pleased to cite the place that I may see and consider of it In the mean time there is as little said in the Liturgy for Scotland which may import an Oblation of an unbloody Sacrifice as is in the Book of England As for the Oblation of the Elements that 's fit and proper And I am sorry for my part that it is not in the Book of England But they say farther We are ready when it shall be judged convenient and we shall be desired to discover much more of Matters in this kind as Grounds laid for Missa Sicca or the Half Mass for Private Mass without the People of Communicating in one kind of the Consumption by the Priest and Consummation of the Sacrifice of receiving the Sacrament in the Mouth and not in the Hand c. Here 's a Conclusion of this Charge against me concerning the Service-Book And these charitable Men which have sought no less than my Life now say they are ready when it shall be convenient and that they shall be desired to deliver much more in this kind Sure the time can never be more convenient for them than now when any thing they will say shall be believed even against apparent Evidence or most full Proof to the contrary And I do desire them that notwithstanding this is Hora vestra Potestas Tenebrarum their most convenient time that they will discover any thing which they have more to say But the Truth is here 's nothing in this threatned Heap but Cunning and Malice For they would seem to reckon up many things but divers of them are little different as Missa Sicca and Communicating in one kind And neither these nor any of the rest offered with any Proof nor indeed are they able to prove that any Grounds are laid for any one of them in that Service-Book And for my own part I have expressed my self as fully against these particulars as any Protestant that hath Written Yet they say Our Supplications were many against these Books But Canterbury procured them to be Answered with Horrible Proclamations We were constrained to use the Remedy of Protestation But for our Protestations and other Lawful Means which were used for our Deliverance Canterbury procured us to be declared Rebells and Traytors to all the Parish-Kirks of England where we were seeking to possess our Religion in Peace against those Devices and Novations Canterbury kindles War against us In all these it is known that he was although not thes ole yet the principal Agent and Adviser Their Supplications against these Books of the Canons and the Service were many indeed But how well qualified the matter duly considered I leave to them who shall take the pains to look into them And howsoever most untrue it is that I caused them to be answered with Horrible Proclamations Nor were they constrained by any thing that I know but their own wilfulness to use the Churlish Remedy of Protestation against their Sovereigns Lawful Power in Lawful Things They add that for their Protestations and other Lawful Means which they used for their Deliverance Canterbury procured them to be proclaimed Rebels Now truly I know no other Lawful means that they used but taking up of Arms professedly against the King And I for my part do not conceive that Lawful for Subjects to do in any Cause of Religion or otherwise and this I am sure was the Ancient Christian Doctrine And yet when they had taken up Arms I did not procure them to be declarered Rebels and Traytors The Proclamation for that went out by Common Advise of the Lords of the Council and their carriage at that time deserv'd it plentifully let them paint over that Action how they can And let the World and future Ages judge whether to take Arms against their Sovereign were a Christian and an orderly seeking to
their Opinion unless they be such as have been bred up either in their Faction or in the Opposite at Rome For Bodin is clear That Arms may not be taken up against the Prince be he never so Impious and Wicked And instances in Saul and Nebuchadnezzar And Grotius doth not only say as much as Bodin but Censures them which hold the contrary to be Men which serve Time and Place more than Truth Nor is it any whit more Lawful for Inferiour Magistrates to make this resistance against the King than it is for private Men. And this is universally true where the Princes are free and have not undertaken the Government under that or the like Condition or being free seek with a Hostile Mind to ruine their People which is scarce possible And a great Civilian tells us that he is properly a Rebel that resists the Emperor or his Officers in things belonging to the State of the Empire Some Cases he lays down indeed in which the pleasure of a Prince may not be obeyed but none in which his Power is to be resisted Nor is it any marvel that Christians do disallow the taking up of Arms against the Prince since even the soundest Politicks among the Heathen have declared so likewise Aristotle was of this Opinion that if the Magistrate strike yet he is not to be struck again And Seneca that Men are to bear the unjust as well as the just Commands of Princes And Tacitus that good Emperours are to be desired but whatever they be to be born with And Plutarch that it is not Lawful to offer any Violence to the Person of the King And Cicero That no Force is to be offered either to a Man's Parent or to his Country And therefore in his Judgment not to the Prince who is Pater Patriae the Father of his Country And the truth is where-ever the contrary Opinion is maintained the Prince can never be safe nor the Government setled But so soon as a Faction can get a fit Head and gather sufficient strength all is torn in pieces and the Prince lost for no considerable Errour or perhaps none at all For a strong Party once Heated can as easily make Faults as find them either in Church or Common-wealth And make the King say as Zedekiah sometimes did to his potent Nobles Behold Jeremiah is in your Hands for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Jerem. 38. But whereas they say it is a Doctrine that tends to the utter Slavery and ruin of all States and Kingdoms That will appear most untrue by the very Letter of the Canon it self which gives way to no Tyranny but expresses only the true Power of a King given by God and to be exercised according to God's Law and the several Laws of Kingdoms respectively And I hope there will ever be a real difference found in Christian Kingdoms between the Doctrine that tends to Slavery and Ruine and that which forbids taking up of Arms against their Sovereign which is all that this Canon doth And in the mean time I pray God this not Doctrine only but Practice also of taking up Arms against the Lord 's Anointed under meer pretence of Religion do not in a shorter time than is fear'd bring all to Confusion where-ever 't is Practised For howsoever it bears a shew of Liberty yet this way of maintaining it is not only dishonourable to Kings but the ready way to make them study ways of Force and to use Power when-ever they get it to abridge the Liberties of such over-daring Subjects And in all times it hath sown the Seeds of Civil Combustions which have ended in Slavery and Ruine of flourishing Kingdoms And I pray God these do not end so in this But they go on And as if this had not been sufficient he procures six Subsidies to be lifted of the Clergy under pain of Deprivation to all who should refuse The giving of the King Subsidies is no new thing The Clergy have bin ever willing to the uttermost of their Power But what I and my Brethren of the Clergy did at this time therein is before set down And I hold it not fit to lengthen this Tract with the needless Repetition of any thing And which is yet more and above which Malice it self cannot ascend by his means a Prayer is framed Printed and sent through all the Parishes of England to be said in all Churches in time of Divine Service next after the Prayer for the Queen and Royal Progeny against our Nation by Name as Trayterous Subjects having cast off all Obedience to our Anointed Sovereign and coming in a Rebellious manner to Invade England that shame may cover our Faces as Enemies to God and the King We are now come to the last part of their Charge and that 's the Prayer which was made and sent to be used in all Churches when the Scots came into England But this Prayer was made not by my means or procurement but by his Majesties special Command to me to see it done And it hath bin ever usual in England upon great and urgent occasions to have one or more Prayers made by some Bishop or Bishops nearest hand to fit the Present business And this may appear by divers Forms and Prayers so made and publickly used in all times since the Reformation And since this Prayer was made by his Majesties own Command I am sorry they should say of it that Malice it self cannot ascend above it Though I perswade my self they thought to hit me not him in this Speech Now what I pray is that above which Malice it self cannot ascend Why first it is That they were called in that Prayer trayterous Subjects which had cast off all Obedience to their Anointed Sovereign Why but Truth spake this not Malice For Trayterous Subjects they were then if ever a King had any And the Kings Proclamation called them so before that Prayer came forth And what Title soever it is fit to give them now since his Majesty hath bin graciously pleased to treat with them and pass by their Offence that 's another thing but as the case stood then they had shaken off all Obedience and were as they were then called Trayterous Subjects And I had a special Charge from the King not to spare that Name Secondly They except against this that 't is there said that they came in a Rebellious manner to Invade this Kingdom And that is most true too for whereas they said they came in a peaceable manner to deliver their Petitions to the King for the Liberty of their Religion and Laws Is it a peaceable way to come two or three and twenty Thousand Men strong and Armed to deliver a Petition Let the whole World judge whether this were not a Rebellious Invasion Thirdly They say 't is desir'd in the Prayer that God would with shame cover the Faces
Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the Nomination of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or other wise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners I did never wittingly abuse the Power or Trust which His Majesty reposed in me Nor did I ever intrude upon the Places of any great Officers or others to procure to my self the Nomination of Persons Ecclesiastical to Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to His Majesty the Nobility or any other And though here be no Particular named yet I guess at that which is meant and will clearly set down the Truth His Majesty some few Years since assumed to himself from the Right Honourable the Lord Coventry the Lord Keeper that then was and from my Lord Cottington then Master of the Court of Wards the disposing of all such Benefices as came to the King's Gift by Title of Wardship of what value soever they were The Reason which moved His Majesty to do this was The Lord Keeper and the Lord Cottington became humble Suitors to him to end a Contention between them about the giving of those Benefices both for their own Quiet and the Peace of other His Majesties Subjects For the Course was when any thing fell void in the Gift of a Ward he of these two great Officers which came first to know of the avoidance gave the Living This caused great and oft-times undue Practising among them which were Suitors for the Benefices And many times the Broad-Seal and the Seal of the Court of Wards bore Date the same Day And then the Bishop which Clerk soever he Instituted was sure to offend the other Lord. And these Lords too many times by the earnest putting on of Friends were not well pleased one with another in the Business Upon this Suit of their own His Majesty gave a Hearing to these Lords and in Conclusion of it took the Disposal of all such Benefices into his own Hands and for ought I know with both their liking and content In the disposing of these Benefices to such Men as had served His Majesty at Sea or otherwise I was trusted by the King and I served him in it faithfully but proceeded no farther nor otherwise than he directed and commanded me But I never took the Nomination of any one to my self or my own disposing And the Truth of this as His Majesty knows so I am Confident my Lord Cottington who is yet living will Witness For the Nomination of Chaplains to the King if I had done it I think the work was as proper for the Arch-Bishop as for any Man Yet because by Ancient Custom it was conceived to belong in a great part to the Lord Chamberlain who was then the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembrook I never Named any to His Majesty but I did fairly acquaint the Lord Chamberlain with it and desired his favour But in all my time I never was the means to prefer any Man to His Majesties Service as a Chaplain or to any Promotion whom I knew to be Popishly affected or any way Corrupt in Doctrine or Manners 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and employed such Men to be his own Domestical Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosly addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and unsound both in Judgment and Practice And to them or some of them he hath committed Licensing of Books to be Printed By which means divers false and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the seducing of many of His Majesties Subjects I never chose any Man to be my Chaplain who I knew or had good Cause to suspect was Popishly affected Nor any that was unsound in Judgment or Practice Nor did I commit the Licensing of Books to any such but to those only who I then did and do still believe are Orthodox and Religious Divines and Men of very good Judgment for that Necessary and great Service And if they or any of them have by negligence or otherwise suffered any Erroneous and Dangerous Books to pass the Press they must answer both the Church and the State for whatsoever they have done amiss in that kind for it is not possible for the Archbishop to perform all those Services in Person And in the committing of them to my Chaplains and other Divines of Note I have done no new thing but that which my Predecessors have done before me This I am sure of I gave often and express and strict Command to all and every of them that they should License nothing that was contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline Established in the Church of England or might Personally or otherwise give Offence or Distaste And I hope they have Obeyed my Directions If not they must Answer for themselves 10. He hath Trayterously and Wickedly endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome And for the effecting thereof hath Consorted and Confederated with divers Popish Priests and Jesuits and hath kept secret intelligence with the Pope of Rome And by himself his Agents and Instruments treated with such as have from thence received Authority and Instruction He hath permitted and countenanced a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be Established in this Kingdom By all which Trayterous and Malicious Practices this Church and Kingdom have been exceedingly indangered and like to fall under the Tyranny of the Roman See The Article is now come of which I spake before and in my Answer to which I promised to set down the substance of that which I spake in the Parliament House to the Lords when this General Charge was brought up against me and I shall somewhat inlarge it yet without any Change of the Grounds upon which I then stood And now I shall perform that Promise And I shall be of all other least afraid to answer all that is here said concerning Religion For my Heart I bless God for it is sound that way to the uttermost of my Knowledge and I think I do well understand my Principles And my Old Master Aristotle hath taught me long since that Qui se bene habent ad divina audaciores sunt they which are well and setledly composed in things pertaining to God that is in Religion are much the bolder by it And this not only against Slanders and Imputations cast upon Men for this but in all other Accidents of the World what ever they be And surely I may not deny it I have ever wished and heartily Prayed for the Unity of the whole Church of Christ and the Peace and Reconciliation of torn and divided Christendom But I did never desire a Reconciliation but such as might stand
I ever pressed the Argument alike against both as I can prove by good Witness if need be And I pray God this Faction too little feared and too much nourished among us have not now found the Opportunity waited for 3. That they live here and enjoy all freedom and yet for the most part scorn so much as to learn the Language or to converse with any more than for advantage of Bargaining And will take no Englishman to be their Apprentice nor teach them any of their Manufactures which I did then and do still think most unreasonable 4. That for Religion if after so many descents of their Children born in the Land and so Native Subjects these Children of theirs should refuse to Pray and Communicate with the Church of England into whose bosom their Parents fled at first for succour I thought then and do still that no State could with safety or would in Wisdom endure it And this concerning their Children was all that was desired by me As appears by the Act which my Vicar General made concerning those Churches at Canterbury Sandwitch and Maidstone in my Diocess and the Publication of this Act in their Congregations by their own Ministers in this Form following I am commanded to signifie unto you that it is not his Majesty's intent nor of the Council of State to dissolve our Congregations And to that end his Majesty is content to permit the Natives of the first degree to continue Members of our Congregations as before But the Natives in this Church after the first descent are injoyned to obey my Lord Arch-Bishop his Injunction which is to conform themselves to the English Discipline and Liturgy every one in his Parish without inhibiting them notwithstanding from resorting sometimes to our Assemblies And my Lord Arch-Bishop of 〈◊〉 means notwithstanding that the said Natives shall continue to contribute to the Maintenance of the Ministry and Poor of this Church for the better subsisting thereof And promiseth to obtain an Order from the Council if need be and they require it to maintain them in their Manufactures against those which would trouble them by Informations Now that which I injoyned the French and Dutch Churches was to a syllable all one with this in all parts of my Province where these Churches resided As at South-hampton and Norwich And I have a Letter to shew full of thanks from the Ministers and Elders of the French and Walloon-Churches at Norwich All which is far from an endeavour to suppress any just Priviledges and Immunities which these Churches had in England or ought to have in any well-governed Kingdom And since this time I have not only seen but gotten the very Original Letter of Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory written to the Lord Treasurer Pawlet specifying what Order she would should be taken with and for these Churches The Letter is Signed with her Majesty 's own Hand and Signet and gives them not half so much Liberty I do not say as they take but as I have been ever most content to give them For the Queen in these Letters allows them nothing contrary to her Laws and therefore nothing but our Liturgy in their own Language not another Form of Divine Service and Discipline much different from it This was the Wisdom of those times which I pray God we may follow The Queen's Letter follows in these words Elizabeth RIght Trusty and right well-beloved Cozen we greet you well Whereas in the time of our Brother and Sister also the Church of the late Augustine Fryars was appointed to the use of all the Strangers reparing to the City of London for to have therein Divine Service considering that by an Universal Order all the rest of the Churches have the Divine Service in the English Tongue for the better edifying of the People which the Strangers Born understand not Our Pleasure is that you shall Assign and Deliver the said Church and all things thereto belonging to the Reverend Father in God the Bishop of London to be appointed to such Curates and Ministers as he shall think good to serve from time to time in the same Churches both for daily Divine Service and for Administration of the Sacraments and Preaching of the Gospel so as no Rite nor Use be therein observed contrary or derogatory to our Laws And these our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf Given under Our Signet at Our Palace of Westminster the ...... of February the Second Year of our Reign To our Trusty and right well beloved Cousin and Counsellor the Marquess of Winchester High Treasurer of England 13. He hath maliciously and Trayterously Plotted and endeavoured to stir up War and Enmity betwixt his Majesty's two Kingdoms of England and Scotland and to that purpose hath laboured to introduce into the Kingdom of Scotland divers Innovations both in Religion and Government all or the most part tending to Popery and Superstition to the great Grievance and Discontent of his Majesty's Subjects of that Nation And for their refusing to submit to such Innovations he did trayterously Advise his Majesty to Subdue them by Force of Arms And by his own Authority and Power contrary to Law did procure sundry of his Majesty's Subjects and inforced the Clergy of this Kingdom to contribute toward the Maintenance of that War And when his Majesty with much Wisdom and Justice had made a Pacification betwixt the two Kingdoms the said Arch-Bishop did presumptuously censure that Pacification as Dishonourable to his Majesty and by his Counsel and Endeavours so incensed his Majesty against his said Subjects of Scotland that he did thereupon by Advice of the said Arch-Bishop enter into an offensive War against them to the great 〈◊〉 of his Majesty's Person and his Subjects of both Kingdoms I did not Endeavour to stir up War between his Majesty's two Kingdoms of England and Scotland but my Counsels were for Peace As may appear by the Counsel which I gave at Theobalds in the beginning of these unhappy Differences For there my Counsel only put a stay upon the Business in hope his Majesty might have a better Issue without than with a War And if I were mistaken in this Counsel yet it agreed well with my Profession and with the Cause which was differences in Religion which I conceived might better be composed by Ink than by Blood And I think it cannot easily be forgotten that I gave this Counsel For my Lord the Earl of Arundel opposed me openly at the Table then and said my Grounds would deceive me And my Lord the Earl of Holland came to me so soon as we were risen from Counsel and was pleased to say to me that I had done my self and my Calling a great deal of Right and the King my Master the best Service that ever I did him in my Life And Mr. Patrick Male of his Majesty's Bed-chamber when he heard what I had done came and gave me
ever any Man played me But he failed in his hopes and his Petition was cast out of the Lords House to try his Right at Law which was all that was asked by Dr Merricke Yet upon the earnestness of the then Lord Bishop of Lincoln and now Arch-Bishop of York the Lords Sequestred my Jurisdiction and put it into the Hands of my Inferiour Officers and added in the Order that I should dispose of neither Benefice nor any other thing but I should first acquaint them with it The Order follows in haec verba Die Sab. 23. Octob. 1641. IT is Ordered by the Lords in Parliament that the Jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury shall be Sequestred until he shall be Convicted or Acquitted of the Charge of High Treason against him and the same in the mean time to be Executed by his Inferiour Officers And farther concerning those Ecclesiastical Benefices Promotions or Dignities that are in his disposing he shall present to this House the Names of such Persons as shall be Nominated by him for the same to be Approved of first by this House before they be Collated or Instituted Jo. Browne Cler. Parliam c. For my Jurisdiction I Thank God I never knowingly abused it And of the other Restraint about the giving of my Benefices I cannot but think it very hard in two respects The one is that I should be put to Name to them before I give that which by Law is mine to give In the mean time they cry out of the violation of the Propriety which each Subject hath in his Goods and yet I must not give my own So also they condemn Arbitrary Government and yet press upon me an Arbitrary Order against Law The other is that if in Obedience to this Order I shall Nominate any Man to them be he never so worthy for Life and Learning yet if upon Misinformation or otherwise the House should refuse him I should not only not do him the good I intended but blast him for all the remainder of his Life And whensoever he shall seek for any other Preferment that shall be laid unto him that he was thought unworthy by the High Court of Parliament Yet how to ease my self against this Order I know not This day Novemb. 1. News came to the Parliament of the Rebellion in Ireland The King being then in Scotland where there were Troubles enough also The Irish pretended the Scots Example and hoped they should get their Liberties and the Freedom of their Religion as well as they But that Rebellion is grown fierce and strong and what end that War will have God knows A happy one God of his Mercy send For this Nation is in many difficulties at once and we have drawn them all upon our selves But this belongs not to my Story Only this I shall add which is the Judgment of all Prudent Men that I speak with both of Ireland and England that if the Earl of Strafford had Lived and not been blasted in his Honour and Service no Rebellion had been stirring there And if this be so 't is a soar Account must be given for his Blood If either that Kingdom be upon this occasion quite lost from the Crown of England or not recover'd without great Expence both of Treasure and Blood On Thursday Novemb. 25. the King returning from Scotland entred into London was received with great State and Joy and Sumptuously Entertained This made divers Men think there would have been a Turn in the present Business And what it might have proved if the King would have presently and vigorously set himself to vindicate his own Just Power and leave them their Antient and Just Priviledges is not I think hard to judge But he let it cool and gave that which is truly the Malignant Faction but call others so time to underwork him and bring the City round and all ran then stronger in the same Current than ever it did So God of his Mercy bless all On Thursday Decemb. 30. the Lord Arch-Bishop of York and Eleven other Bishops were sent to the 〈◊〉 for High Treason and two other Bishops Duresme and Coventry and Litchfield to Mr. Maxwell's for setting their Hands to a Petition and delivering of it with a Protestation that this was not a free Parliament since they who had Antient Right there could not come to give their Votes as they ought without danger of their Lives For by this time it was grown common that the Multitude came down in heaps if either the Lords or the King denyed any thing which the House of Commons affected But how it came to pass that these Multitudes should come down in such disorder and yet be sent back and dissolved so easily at a word or beck of some Men let the World judge The Petition and Protestation which the Bishops delivered in was as follows and perchance it was unseasonably delivered and perhaps some Words in it might have been better spared but the Treason and peradventure that 's my Ignorance I cannot find in it The Petition and Protestation of Twelve Bishops for which they were Accused of High-Treason by the House of Commons and Committed by the Lords to the Black-Rod THat whereas the Petitioners are called upon by several and respective Writs under great Penalties to Attend in Parliament and have a clear and indubitable Right to Vote in Bills and all other Matters whatsoever debated in Parliament by the Antient Customs Laws and Statutes of this Realm and are to be protected by your Majesty quietly to attend and prosecute that great Service They humbly remonstrate and protest before God your Majesty and the Noble Peers now Assembled in Parliament that as they have an indubitable Right to Sit and Vote in the House of Lords so they if they may be protected from force and violence are most ready and willing to perform that Duty accordingly and that they do abominate all Actions and Opinions tending to Popery or any inclination to the Malignant Party or any other side and Party whatsoever to the which their own Reasons and Consciences shall not adhere But whereas they have been at several times violently Menaced Affronted and Assaulted by multitudes of People in coming to perform their Service to that Honourable House and lately chased away and put in danger of their Lives and find no Redress or Protection upon sundry Complaints made to both Houses in that particular They likewise protest before your Majesty and that Noble House of Peers that saving to themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in your House at other times they dare not sit to Vote in the House of Peers unless your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Danger in the Premises Lastly whereas their fears are not built upon Fancies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well
Articles Which follow in haec Verba The Eighth Article 8. That for the better advancing of his Trayterous Purpose and Design he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of other his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or otherwise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners The Ninth Article 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and imployed such Men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosty addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and Vnsound both in Judgment and Practice and to them or some of them he hath committed the Licensing of Books to be Printed by which means divers False and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the 〈◊〉 of many of his Majesty's Subjects The Fourteenth Day of my Hearing At the ending of the former days Charge I was put off to this day which held The First Charge was concerning Mr. Damport's leaving his Benefice in London and going into Holland 1. The First Witness for this was Quaterman a bitter Enemy of mine God forgive him He speaks as if he had fled from his Ministry here for fear of me But the Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell says that he went away upon a Warrant that came to Summon him into the High Commission The Truth is my Lords and 't is well known and to some of his best Friends that I preserved him once before and my Lord Veer came and gave me Thanks for it If after this he fell into danger again Majus Peccatum habet I cannot preserve Men that will continue in dangerous courses He says farther and in this the other Witness agrees with him That when I heard he was gone into New-England I should say my Arm should reach him there The Words I remember not But for the thing I cannot think it fit that any Plantation should secure any Offender against the Church of England And therefore if I did say my Arm should reach him or them so offending I know no Crime in it so long as my Arm reached no Man but by the Law 2. The Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell adds nothing to this but that he says Sir Maurice Abbot kept him in before For which Testimony I thank him For by this it appears that Mr. Damport was a dangerous Factious Man and so accounted in my Predecessor's Time and it seems Prosecuted then too that his Brother Sir Maurice Abbot was fain being then a Parishioner of his to labour hard to keep him in The Second Charge was concerning Nathaniel Wickens a Servant of Mr. Pryns 1. The First Witness in this Cause was William Wickens Father to Nathaniel He says his Son was Nine Weeks in divers Prisons and for no Cause but for that he was Mr. Pryn's Servant But it appears apud Acta that there were many Articles of great Misdemeanour against him And afterwards himself adds That he knew no Cause but his refusing to take the Oath Ex Officio Why but if he knew that then he knew another Cause beside his being Mr. Pryn's Servant Unless he will say all Mr. Pryn's Servants refuse that Oath and all that refuse that Oath are Mr. Pryn's Servants As for the Sentence which was laid upon him and the Imprisonment that was the Act of the High-Commission not mine Then he says That my Hand was first in the Warrant for his Commitment And so it was to be of course 2. The Second Witness was Sarah Wayman She says that he refused to take the Oath Therefore he was not committed for being Mr. Pryn's Servant She says that for refusing the Oath he was threatned he should be taken pro Confesso And that when one of the Doctors replyed that could not be done by the Order of the Court I should say I would have an Order by the next Court Day 'T is manifest in the Course of that Court that any Man may be taken pro Confesso that will not take the Oath and answer Yet seeing how that party of Men prevailed and that one Doctors doubting might breed more Difference to the great Scandal and Weakning of that Court I publickly acquainted his Majesty and the Lords with it Who were all of Opinion that if such Refusers might not be taken pro Confesso the whole Power of the Court was shaken And hereupon his Majesty sent his Letter under his Signet to command us to uphold the Power of the Court and to proceed She says farther that he desired the sight of his Articles which was denyed him It was the constant and known Course of that Court that he might not see the Articles till he had taken the Oath which he refused to do 3. The Third Witness was one Flower He agrees about the business of taking him pro Confesso But that 's answerd He adds that there was nothing laid to his Charge and yet confesses that Wickens desired to see the Articles that were against him This is a pretty Oath There were Articles against him which he desired to see and yet there was nothing laid to his Charge 4. Then was produced his Majesty's Letter sent unto us And herein the King requires us by his Supream Power Ecclesiastical to proceed c. We had been in a fine case had we disobeyed this Command Besides my Lords I pray mark it we are enjoyned to proceed by the King 's Supream Power Ecclesiastical and yet it is here urged against me that this was done to bring in Popery An Excellent new way of bringing in Popery by the King's Supremacy Yea but they say I should not have procured this Letter Why I hope I may by all Lawful ways preserve the Honour and just Power of the Court in which I sat And 't is expressed in the Letter that no 〈◊〉 was done than was agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And 't is known that both an Oath and a taking pro Confesso in point of refusal are used both in the Star-Chamber and in the Chancery 5. The last Witness was Mr. Pryn who says That his Man was not suffered to come to him during his Soarness when his ears were Cropped This Favour should have been asked of the Court of Star-Chamber not of me And yet here is no Proof that I denyed him this but the bare Report of him whom he says he employed Nor do I remember any Man's coming to me about it The Third Charge followed it was concerning stopping of Book
I produced Mr. Dobson an ancient Servant to my Predecessors who witnessed that Arch-Bishop Bancroft had store of them and kept them all his Time Nor do I know how this Charge can fall upon me For there is no one Word in any of the Letters produced that Reflects upon me or any Plot of mine Nor indeed had I ever any such to Reflect upon The Fourth Charge is That I had a Hand in the Plot for sending the King when he was Prince into Spain to be perverted in his Religion They follow their Proof of this out of my Diary And they begin with my Friendship with the Lord Duke of Buckingham who waited on the Prince in this Journey And first they urged my Diary at June 9. 1622. where I mention that there were then Particulars which are not for Paper But the Words which lead these in were his entrance upon a near Respect to me the particular Expressions whereof were not for Paper Nor Word nor Thought of either Plot or Popery Then they urged June 15. 1622. where 't is said that I became C. that is Confessor to the Lord Duke First if my Lord Duke would Honour me so much as to make me his Confessor as I know no Sin in it so is it abundantly Proof that the Passages before mentioned were not for Paper Should I venture them so there 's never a Person of Honour present but would think me most unworthy of that Trust. Next they pressed June 13. 1623. where I confess that I received Letters from my Lord Duke out of Spain I did so and I then held it great Honour to me and do so still But then and long before it was known to all Men whither he was gone and with whom Nay it was commonly known to all Men of Quality hereabout within three or four Days And till it was so commonly known I knew it not Yea but then they inforced out of Feb. 17. 1622 3. That the Prince and the Marquess of Buckingham set forward very Secretly for Spain And Feb. 21. that I writ to his Lordship into Spain 'T is true they went away that Day and very secretly but I neither did nor could set it down till afterwards that I came to know it And then so soon as I came to know it which was about the 21th I did write To these was Cunningly how Honestly let all the World Judge pieced a Passage out of a Letter of mine to Bishop Hall But that Letter was read at my humble motion to the Lords and the Date of it was in 1634. So many Years after this Business of Spain And the Passage mentioned was only about King James his manner of defending the Pope to be Antichrist and how he salved it while the Prince was in Spain But King James related it after Nor could any Words of that Letter be drawn to the King 's going thither much less to any knowledge I had of it The Fifth Charge was concerning his Majesty's Match with France And here again they urge my Diary at Mar. 11. 1625. That the Duke of Buckingham was then and there employed And at May 19. and 29. that I then writ Letters to him First my Lords I hold it my great Honour that my Lord Duke would write to me and give me leave to write to him Secondly I have committed some Error in these Letters or none If none why are they Charged If any why are they not produced that I may see what it is and answer it The Sixth Charge was That I was an Instrument of the Queens This they endeavoured to prove by my Diary in Three Places First at Aug. 30. 1634. Vpon occasion of some Service done she was graciously pleased to give me leave to have immediate Access unto her when I had Occasion This is true and I most humbly Thanked her Majesty for it For I very well knew what belonged to Addresses at Second Hand in Court But what Crime is in this that the Queen was pleased to give me Access unto her when I had Occasion Here 's no Word of Religion Secondly at May 18. 1635. Where 't is said that I gave her Majesty an account of some thing committed to me If her Majesty sent or spake to me to do any thing as it seems she did shall I want so much Duty as to give her an Account of it So belike I must be unmannerly with her Majesty or lye open to no less than a Charge of high Treason Thirdly at April 3. 1639. 'T is made a great matter that I should then dispatch a great business for the Queen which I understood she would not move for her self And that for this her Majesty gave me great Thanks Mr. Nicolas his Inference upon this was that they conceive wherefore But his Conceit makes no Evidence He must not only conceive but prove wherefore before it can work any thing against me As for Religion as there is no Word of it in my Diary so neither was it at this time thought on Her Majesty would therein have moved for her self But it seems it must be a Crime if I be but Civil and Dutiful towards the Queen though it be but thrice mentioned in so many Years The Seventh Charge was that I forbad Ministers Praying for the Queens Conversion and punished others The First Witness Mr. Ratcliff says that Sir Nath. Brent gave it in Charge at Bow Church in my Visitation The more to blame he if so he did Yea but he says it was by my Command delivered unto him by Sir John Lambe Was it so How doth Mr. Ratcliff know that He doth not express He was not present when I spake with Sir John Lambe And if Sir Nath. Brent told him of it 't is but Hearsay And Sir Nath. having been so ready a Witness against me why is he not examined to this Particular And as for the Paper which was shewed it appears plainly there that it was no Paper of Instructions sent to my Visitors by me but of particular Informations to me Of which one was that the Queen was prayed for in a very Factious and Scandalous Way And this appeared when that Paper was read And this I referred to my Visitors as I not only might but ought Not forbidding the Prayers but the Scandalous manner of them The Second Witness was Mr. Pryn. Who says That one Mr. Jones was punished for praying for the Queen He was punished in the High-Commission for scandalous Abusing the Queen under a Form of Praying for her and for divers other Articles that were against him And this Answer I gave to Mr. Brown who forgot not this in summing up my Charge The Eighth Charge was That I punished Men for Praying to preserve the Prince No God forbid The High-Commission Book was shewed and that there in the Year 1634. one Mr. Howe was Censured for it I got this Act of the High-Commission to be read to the Lords His Prayer went
thus That God would preserve the Prince in the true Religion of which there was cause to fear Could this Prayer have any other Operation upon the People than to make them think his Majesty was careless in the Education of the Prince especially in point of Religion And this was so Grievous and Graceless a Scandal cast upon a Religious King as nothing could be greater Upon the matter it was the shew of a Prayer for the Prince but was indeed to destroy the King in the Hearts of his People And had I not there consented to his Punishment I had deserved to be punished my self Mr. Brown when he repeated the Summ of the Evidence laid this Charge upon me but spake not one Word to my Remembrance of this Answer given to it The Ninth Charge That I did Extol Queen Mary's Days The Proof for it was taken out of the Preface to the Statutes of the Vniversity of Oxford I took a great deal of pains about those Statutes and might justly have expected Thanks for it not such an Accusation But as for the Preface it was made and Printed at Oxford I medled not with it I could trust the University with little if not with the making of a Preface If they have done any thing amiss in it let them answer it The Passage was about certain Offers made to amend those Confused Old Statutes both in Ed. 6. and Queen Mary's Days but no Effect came of the pains then taken Recruduit Labor says the Preface So that this I can answer for them There 's not a Word spoken of Religion but of Manners only and that as much in relation to the Times of Princes following as Hers. For the Words to my remembrance are Interim optandâ Temporum Foelicitate c. And that Interim cannot be restrained to Queen Mary's Days only but must include the whole Interim or middle distance of Time to that present in which I setled the Body of their Statutes that is all Queen Elizabeth's and King James his Days which I think no Man can deny was Optanda Temporum Foelicitas Here Mr. Nicolas confessed there was no down-right Proof against me That was his Phrase But he added that was not to be expected in such a Work of Darkness Then he produced a Paper found in my Study Printed at Rome So were divers of my Books Printed there What of this They may Print what they will at Rome I cannot hinder it And I may have and keep whatever they Print no Law forbidding it Then he shewed a Letter sent unto me from Mr. Graves The Gentleman is at this present Fellow of Merton College in Oxford a great Traveller and a Man of great Worth As far as I remember his Letter came to me from Alexandria It was fit to be sent and kindly received as by me it was I desired it might be read Then were mentioned Sir William Boswell's Letters and the Papers sent by Andreas ab Habernfeld about a great Plot to destroy the King and Religion and that I concealed these Papers I might have been amazed at the Impudence of this Charge above all the rest Diaboli Impudentia the Devils Impudence and no less as S. Augustin speaks in another Case Did I conceal these Papers First the same Day that I received them I sent them by an Express to his Majesty I had a speedy Answer from his Majesty and that I returned with equal speed to his Majesty's Agent Sir William Boswell as I was commanded And this Mr. Pryn and Mr. Nicolas knew For Mr. Pryn took all these Letters and Papers from me when he searched me at the Tower and out of them made his Book called Rome's Masterpiece Excepting the Slanders which he hath Jugled in of his own So soon as his Majesty came home I humbly besought him that he would be pleased to appoint a time and call some Lords to him to hear and examine the Business and this Examination continued till I was Committed What was after done I cannot account for Besides my Lords it appears by those Paprs that my Life was sought for because I would not give way to the Change of Religion and Mr. Pryn himself hath Printed this and yet now Mr. Nicolas from his Testimony presses these Papers against me But the King and the Lords and both Secretaries of State then present can witness that I took all the Care and Pains above-mentioned to have it sifted to the Bottom Notwithstanding all this Mr. Nicolas falls upon this Plot again upon the next Day of my Hearing as if nothing had been said unto it And was so shameless as to say that I followed this Business so long as I thought the Plot was against the Puritans But so soon as I found it was against the Papists I kept it secret till Mr. Pryn discovered it in his search of my Papers Where First there 's no one Word in all the Papers to make me or any Man think the Puritans were concerned in it And Secondly I did not sleep upon the Receipt of these Papers till I had sent them to his Majesty But I had reason to keep the Papers as safe as I could considering how much they justifie me against these foul Calumnies put upon me Then followed the Charge of Sancta Clara's Book alias Monsieur St Giles So they expressed it and I must follow the way they lead me First then they Charge that I had often Conference with him while he was writing his Book Intituled Deus Natura Gratia No he never came to me till he was ready to Print that Book Then some Friends of his brought him to me His Suit then was That he might Print that Book here Upon Speech with him I found the Scope of his Book to be such as that the Church of England would have little Cause to thank him for it And so absolutely denyed it Nor did he ever come more at me after this but twice or thrice at most when he made great Friends to me that he might Print another Book to prove that Bishops are by Divine Right My Answer then was that I did not like the way which the Church of Rome went in the Case of Episcopacy And howsoever that I would never give way that any such Book should be Printed here from the Pen of a Romanist and that the Bishops of England were able to defend their own Cause and Calling without calling in Aid from Rome and would in due time Maintenance he never had any from me nor did I then know him to be a Priest Nor was there any Proof so much as offered in contrary to any of this 2. Secondly they did specially except against a Passage in the Licenser and another at the end of the Book The Book was Printed at Lions where I could not hinder the Printing either of the whole or any part This might have been something had I Licensed it here But that I constantly denyed 3. Thirdly
all the Proof they brought for it is that it is written upon the Paper that there was an Intention to Print it but that I know not what hinder'd it But this Argument can never conclude John a Nokes knows not who hindred the Printing of a Jewish Catechism in England therefore he was displeased the Catechism was not Printed But I see every Foot can help trample him that is down Yea but they Instanced in three Particulars which they charged severally upon me The first Particular was That by this Remonstrance they sought to fill our Peoples Hearts more than our Ears A second was that they swelled to that bigness till they brake themselves But neither of these strike at any Right or Priviledge of Parliaments they only Tax some Abuses which were conceived to be in the Miscarriage of that one Parliament And both these Particulars were in my Instructions And though I have ever Honoured Parliaments and ever shall yet I cannot think them Infallible General Councils have greater Promises than they yet they may Err. And when a Parliament by what ill Accident so-ever comes to Err may not their King tell them of it Or must every Passage in his Answer be sour that pleases not And for that Remonstrance whither it tended let the World judge the Office is too dangerous for me The third Particular was the Excusing of Ireland and the growth of Popery there of which that Remonstrance An. 1628. complained This was in the Instructions too And I had Reason to think the King and his Council understood the State of Ireland for Religion and other Affairs as well as other Men. And I was the more easily led into the belief that Religion was much at one State in Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's and King James his time and now because ever since I understood any thing of those Irish Affairs I still heard the same Complaints that were now made For in all these times they had their Romish Hierarchy Submitted to their Government Payed them Tythes Came not to the Protestant Churches And Rebelled under Tyrone under pretence of Religion And I do not conceive they have gone beyond this now If they have let them Answer it who have occasioned it But to prove this great new growth of Popery there they produced first a Proclamation from the State in Ireland dated April 1. 1629. Then a Letter of the Bishop of Kilmore's to my self dated April 1. 1630. Thirdly a Complaint made to the State there An. 1633. of this growth so that I could not but know it Most true when these Informations came I could not but know it But look upon their Date and you shall find that all of them came after this Answer was made to the Remonstrance and therefore could not possibly be foreseen by me without the Gift of Prophesie Then they produced a Letter of the Earl of Straffords in which he Communicated to me Mar. 1633. that to mould the Lower House there and to rule them the better he had got them to be chosen of an equal number of Protestants and Papists And here Mr. Maynard who pressed this point of Religion hard upon me began to fall foul upon this Policy of the Earl of Strafford and himself yet brake off with this But he is gone Then he fell upon me as a Man likely to approve those ways because he desired the Letter might be communicated to me This Letter was not written to me as appears by the Charge it self For if it had no Man else needed to communicate it to me And I would fain know how I could help any of this If that Lord would write any thing to me himself or communicate any thing to another that should acquaint me with it was it in my power to hinder either of these And there were other Passages in this Letter for which I conceive his Lordship desired the Communication of that Letter to me much more than the Particular urged which could no way relate unto me And Mr. Brown in his Summ said very little if any thing to this Business of Ireland After this Mr. Nicolas who would have nothing forgotten that might help to multiply Clamour against me fell upon five Particulars which he did but name and left the Lords to their Notes Four of these Five were handled before As First the words If the Parliament prove peevish Secondly that the King might use his own Power Thirdly the violation of the Petition of Right Fourthly the Canons Fifthly that I set Spyes about the Election of Parliament-Men in Glocester-shire and for this last they produced a Letter of one Allibon to Dr. Heylin To the four first I referred the Lords to their Notes of my Answers as they did To this last that Mr. Allibon is a meer Stranger to me I know not the Man And 't is not likely I should employ a Stranger in such a Business The Letter was sent to Dr. Heylin and if there were any discovery in it of Juglings there in those Elections as too often there are and if Dr. Heylin sent me those Letters as desirous I should see what Practices are abroad what fault is there in him or me for this Then Mr. Nicolas would not omit that which he thought might disgrace and discontent me though it could no way be drawn to be any Accusation 'T was out of my Diary at Oct 27. 1640. this Parliament being then ready to begin The Passage there is That going into my upper Study to send away some Manuscripts to Oxford I found my Picture which hung there privately fallen down upon the Face and lying on the Floor I am almost every day threatned with my Ruin God grant this be no Omen of it The Accident is true and having so many Libels causelesly thrown out against me and hearing so many ways as I did that my Ruin was Plotted I had Reason to apprehend it But I apprehended it without Passion and with looking up to God that it might not be Ominous to me What is this Man Angry at Or why is this produced But though I cannot tell why this was produced yet the next was urged only to Incense your Lordships against me 'T is in my Diary again at Feb. 11. 1640. Where Mr. Nicolas says confidently I did Abuse your Lordships and Accuse you of Injustice My Lords what I said in my Diary appears not if it did appear whole and altogether I doubt not but it alone would abundantly satisfie your Lordships But that Passage is more than half burnt out as is to be seen whether of purpose by Mr. Pryn or casually I cannot tell yet the Passage as confidently made up and read to your Lordships as if nothing were wanting For the thing it self the close of my words is this So I see what Justice I may expect since here 's a Resolution taken not only before my Answer but before my Charge is brought up against me Which Words can
at Council-Table High Commission or Convocation are all Joynt Acts of that Body in and by which they were done and cannot by any Law be singly put upon me it being a known Rule of the Law Refertur ad universos quod publice fit per Majorem Partem And Mr. Pryn himself can stand upon this Rule against the Independents and tell us that the Major Voice or Party ought to over-rule and bind the less And he quotes Scripture for it too In which place that which is done by the Major part is ascribed to all not laid upon any one as here upon me And in some of these Courts Star-Chamber especially and Council-Table I was accompanied with Persons of great Honour Knowledge and Experience Judges and others and 't is to me strange and will seem so to Future Ages that one and the same Act shall be Treason in me and not the least Crime nay nor Misdemeanour in any other And yet no Proof hath been offered that I Solicited any Man to concur with me and almost all the Votes given preceeded mine so that mine could lead no Man 8. After this I answered to divers others Particulars as namely to the Canons both as they concerned Aid to the King and as they looked upon matters of the Church and Religion 9. To the Charge about Prohibitions 10. To the base Charge about Bribery But pass them over here as being answered before whither I may refer the Reader now though I could not the Lords then 11. My Lords after this came in the long and various Charge of my Vsurping Papal Power and no less than a design to bring in all the Corruptions of Popery to the utter overthrow of the Protestant Religion established in England And this they went about to prove 1 By my Windows in the Chappel An Argument as brittle as the Glass in which the Pictures are 2 By Pictures in my Gallery which were there before the House was mine and so proved to your Lordships 3 By Reverence done in my Chappel As if it were not due to God ospecially in his Church And done it was not to any other Person or Thing 4 By Consecration of Churches Which was long before Popery came into the World As was also the care of safe laying up of all Hallowed and Sacred things For which I desire your Lordships I may read a short Passage out of Sir Walter Rawley's History The rather because written by a Lay-Man and since the Times of Reformation But this Mr. Maynard excepted against both as new Matter and because I had not the Book present though the Paper thence transcribed was offered to be attested by Oath to be a true Copy But though I could not be suffered to read it then yet here it follows So Sacred was the moveable Temple of God and with such Reverence guarded and transported as 22000 Persons were Dedicated to the Service and Attendance thereof of which 8580 had the peculiar Charge according to their several Offices and Functions the Particulars whereof are in the Third and Fourth of Numbers The Reverend care which Moses the Prophet and chosen Servant of God had in all that belonged even to the outward and least Parts of the Tabernacle Ark and Sanctuary witnessed well the inward and most humble Zeal born toward God himself The Industry used in the Framing thereof and every and the least part thereof the curious Workmanship thereon bestowed the exceeding Charge and Expence in the Provisions the Dutiful Observance in laying up and preserving the Holy Vessels the Solemn removing thereof the Vigilant Attendance thereon and the Provident Defence of the same which All Ages have in some Degree imitated is now so forgotten and cast away in this superfine Age by those of the Family by the Anabaptists Brownists and other Sectaries as all Cost and Care bestowed and had of the Church wherein God is to be Served and Worshipped is accounted a kind of Popery and as proceeding from an Idolatrous Disposition Insomuch as Time would soon bring to pass if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barns and from thence again into the Fields and Mountains and under the Hedges and the Office of the Ministery robbed of all Dignity and respect be as contemptible as those Places all Order Discipline and Church Government left to newness of Opinion and Mens Fancies Yea and soon after as many kinds of Religions would spring up as there are Parish-Churches c. Do ye not think some body set Mr. Maynard on to prohibit the Reading out of this Passage as foreseeing whither it tended For I had read one third part of it before I had the stop put upon me 5 But they went on with their Proof By my Censuring of Good Men that is Separatists and Refractory Persons 6 By my Chaplains Expunging some things out of Books which made against the Papists It may be if my Chaplains whom it concerns had Liberty to answer they were such Passages as could not be made good against the Papists and then 't is far better they should be out than in For as S. Augustin observed in his and we find it true in our time the Inconvenience is great which comes to the Church and Religion by bold Affirmers Nay he is at a satis dici non potest the Mischief is so great as cannot be expressed 7. Then by altering some things in a Sermon of Dr Sybthorp's But my Answer formerly given will shew I had cause 8. By my preferment of unworthy Men So unworthy as that they would be famous both for Life and Learning were they in any other Protestant Church in Christendom And they are so Popishly affected as that having suffered much both in State and Reputation since this Persecution of the Clergy began for less it hath not been no one of them is altered in Judgment or fallen into any liking with the Church of Rome 9. By the Overthrow of the Feoffment But that was done by Judgment in the Exchequer to which I referred my self And if the Judgment there given be right there 's no fault in any Man If it were wrong the fault was in the Judges not in me I solicited none of them 10. By a Passage in my Book where I say The Religion of the Papists and Ours is one But that 's expressed at large only because both are Christianity and no Man I hope will deny that Papists are Christians As for their notorious Failings in Christianity I have in the same Book said enough to them 11. By a Testimony of Mr. Burton's and Mr. Lane's that I should say We and the Church of Rome did not differ in Fundamentals but in Circumstantials This I here followed at large but to avoid tedious repetition refer my Reader to the place where 't is anaswered 12. By my making the Dutch Churches to be of another Religion But this is mistaken as my Answer will shew the
which it is in truth of Substance But this Word Right is not so used but it is referred more properly to perfection in Conditions And in this Sense every thing that hath a true and real Being is not by and by Right in the Conditions of it A Man that is most Dishonest and Unworthy the Name a very Thief if you will is a True Man in the Verity of his Essence as he is a Creature Endued with Reason for this none can steal from him nor he from himself but Death But he is not therefore a Right or an Upright Man And a Church that is exceeding Corrupt both in Manners and Doctrine and so a Dishonour to the Name is yet a True Church in the verity of Essence as a Church is a Company of Men which profess the Faith of Christ and are Baptized into his Name but yet it is not therefore a Right Church either in Doctrine or Manners It may be you meant cunningly to slip in this Word Right that I might at unawares grant it Orthodox But I was not so to be caught For I know well that Orthodox Christians are Keepers of Integrity so St. Augustin and Followers of right Things of which the Church of Rome at this Day is neither In this Sense then no Right that is no Orthodox Church at Rome IX Epist. Dedicat. circa med For to my remembrance I have not given him or his so much as Course Language But on the other side God forbid too that your Majesty should let both Laws and Discipline sleep for fear of the Name of 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 see to it That they be not suffered to lay either their Weels or Bait their Hooks or cast their Nets in every Stream lest that Tentation grow both too general and too strong I know they have many Devices to work their Ends but if they will needs be Fishing let them use none but Lawful Nets Let 's have no dissolving of Oaths of Allegiance no Deposing no Killing of Kings no blowing up of States to settle Quod Volumus That which fain they would have in the Church with many other Nets as dangerous as these For if their Profession of Religion were as good as they pretend it is if they cannot compass it by good means I am sure they ought not to attempt it by bad For if they will do evil that good may come thereof the Apostle tells me Their Damnation's just Rom. 3. 8. Now as I would humbly beseech your Majesty to keep a serious Watch upon these Fishermen which pretend S. Peter but Fish not with his Net So c. X. A Passage out of the Conference at Hampton-Court referred to in the preceding History Pag. 28. Upon the first Motion concerning falling from Grace the Bishop of London took occasion to signifie to his Majesty how very many in these days neglecting Holiness of Life presumed too much of persisting of Grace laying all their Religion upon Predestination if I shall Saved I shall be Saved which he termed a desperate Doctrine shewing it to be contrary to good Divinity and the True Doctrine of Predestination wherein we should Reason rather ascendendo than descendendo thus I Live in Obedience to God in Love with my Neighbour I follow my Vocation c. therefore I trust that God hath Elected me and Predestinated me to Salvation Not thus which is the usual course of Argument God hath Predestinated and chosen me to Life therefore though I sin never so grievously yet I shall not be damned For whom he once loveth he loveth to the End Whereupon he shewed his Majesty out of the next Article what was the Doctrine of the Church of England touching Predestination in the very last Paragraph Scil. We must receive God's Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture and in our doings that the Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God Which part of the Article his Majesty very well approved And after he had after his manner very singularly discoursed on that place of Paul Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling he left it to be considered whether any thing were meet to be added for the clearing of the Doctor his doubt by putting in the Word often or the like as thus We may often depart from Grace But in the mean time wished that the Doctrine of Predestination might be very tenderly handled and with great discretion lest on the one side God's Omnipotency might be called in question by impeaching the Doctrine of his eternal Predestination or on the other side a desperate Presumption might be arreared by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in Grace XI A Passage out of the Arch-Bishop's Speech in Star-Chamber at the Censure of Pryn Burton and Bastwick referred to in the Preceding History Pag. 36. The Learned make but Three Religions to have been of old in the World Paganism Judaism and Christianity and now they have added a Fourth which is Turcism and is an absurd mixture of the other three Now if this ground of theirs be true as 't is generally received perhaps it will be of dangerous consequence sadly to avow that the Popish Religion is Rebellion That some Opinions of theirs teach Rebellion that 's apparently True the other would be thought on to say no more XII A Passage out of the New Statutes of the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ in Canterbury drawn by the Arch-Bishop and prescribed to that Church by the King 1636. Cap. 34. de Celebratione Divinorum Statuimus etiam ut nullus Canonicorum aliorum in Choro Ministrantium Divinorum Officiorum tempore absque Insignibus Choro Gradui convenientibus Chorum ingrediatur Singuli verò cujuscunque fuerint Gradûs aut Ordinis in ingressu Chori Divinam Majestatem devotâ mente adorantes humiliter se inclinabunt versùs Altare prout antiquis quarundam Ecclesiarum Statutis cautum novimus dein conversi Decano quoque debitam Reverentiam exhibebunt Quòd si contigerit aliquem ex quacunque causâ de loco in locum transire in Choro Reverentiam similiter in medio Chori tam versùs Altare quà m versùs stallum Decani si praesens fuerit exhibebit tum in eundo tum in redeundo toties quoties XIII A Passage out of Arch-Bishop Parker's Antiquitates Britannicae concerning Prohibitions referred to in the preceding History Pag. 326 327. edit Londin Jamque Juris Regni periti ut sui commodi Causâ Regia for a multitudine litium Infinitate replerent plerasque Causas Controversias ab Archiepiscopali Episcopali Audientiâ ad sua Judicia vocabant Ecclesiasticam Jurisdictionem decimarum
Witness I laboured nothing but the Settlement of the Decent External Worship of God among us which whatever some other Men think I know was sunk very low and if in labouring this I did err in any Circumstance for in matter of Substance I am sure I did not that may be forgiven me for Humanity sake which cannot free it self from Error But that which brought all these Distractions both upon Church and State was the bringing in of the Scots and the keeping of them here at a vast charge only to serve Turns and those very base ones And to the debasing and dishonour of this whole Nation as well as the King And how far this Lord had his Hand or his Head in this Treacherous Business he best knows Sure I am his Lordship is thought one of the chief Moulders of this Leaven of the Pharisees But my Lord thinks himself safe enough so he can cry me up among the Rabble to be the Author of all And not content with this he insults farther upon me as follows Yet to magnifie his Moderation presently after the breaking of the last Parliament he told a Lord who sits now in my sight that if he had been a Violent Man he wanted no occasion to shew it For he observed that the Lord Say never came to Prayers and added that I was in his knowledge as great a Separatist as any was in England What ever it was I said was not to magnifie my Moderation Nor do I remember that ever I spake these words Yet First if any Lord will say upon his Honour that I did say these very Words I will bear him and the Peerage of the Realm that Honour as that I will submit and believe his Testimony against my own Old now and Weak Memory Next upon enquiry made by some Friends of mine I find that the Words I should speak are said to be these that if I listed to take any advantage against this Honourable Lord I had as much exception to him as to any Separatist in England These Words are neither so Bold nor so Vncivil as those in the Charge and perhaps I might speak these though I remember it not For during the last Parliament not so few as Ten or a Dozen several Lords came to me of themselves as I sat there and complained grievously of this Lord's absenting himself from the Prayers of the Church and some of them wondred he was not questioned for the Scandal he gave by it And if any of them would be so mean as to urge me to speak by speaking Broad themselves and then carry the Tale to this Noble Lord he did that who ever he were which I hope was not the Noblest of his Actions and if I did say these latter Words of this great Lord I must and do say them again and I heartily beseech God that this Sin be not laid to my Charge that I questioned him not when the Times were calmer For had I done that I had done my Duty and if I had not cured him perhaps I might have prevented so much common danger to this Church as his Lordship hath procured since that time both by his Example his Counsel and his Countenance And for the Words I doubt not but he himself will be found to have made them good before I have done examining this Speech of his Lordship In the mean time my Lord proceeds My Lords how far he hath spit this Venom of his against me I am not certain but I may well fear where it might do me greatest Prejudice I shall therefore intreat your Lordships Favour and Patience that I may give you in these things which so nearly concern me a true account of my self which I shall do with Ingenuity and Clearness and so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear I am not such a one as this Waspish Man was willing to make the World believe I have spit no Venom against his Lordship much less have I spit any thing far For this Report which is here called Venom is common through the Kingdom And I have already told you what divers Lords said to me during the last Parliament And that is no more than hath been avowed unto me by very many others and some of very good Quality so the spreading was to me not from me But yet my Lord fears I spread it where it might do him greatest Prejudice I know not what my Lord means by this unless it be that I should spread it to his Majesty And if that be his meaning I will tell his Lordship truth what I know therein I was present when I heard some Lords more than once tell the King that the Lord Say was a Separatist from the Church of England and would not come at her Common-Prayers And one of these Lords afterwards told me he did conceive it was a great danger to this Kingdom when Noblemen should begin to separate in Religion and that his Majesty had need look to it To this last which was spoken to me in private but I will depose the Truth of it I could not but assent And to the former I then said I had heard as much as was then told his Majesty but I was not certain of it And I doubt not but these Lords sit in his Lordship's sight as well as that Lord who told him the other of me And not in his Sight only but in his Affections also as things go now But however they carry it with him now this they said of him then Nor will I here pick a Thanks to tell this Lord what Service I did him to his Majesty when he was thought to be in danger enough though I was chidden by a Great one that stood by for my Labour I shall therefore intreat the Christian Reader 's Favour and Patience that having hitherto given him a most true and clear Account of that which my Lord charges me with and doth nearly concern me So I may proceed to the rest which I do with all Ingenuity and Truth And so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear that I am not such a Waspish Man as my Lord would fain render me to the World But if I have been a Wasp in any Court wherein I have had the Honour to sit yet his Lordship should not have called me so considering what a Hornet all men say he is in the Court of Wards and in other Places of Business Where he pinches so deep that discreet Men are in a doubt whether his Aim be to sting the Wards or the Court it self to Death first For no Man can believe 't is for the good of the King And if I fail in this endeavour of mine to clear my self I must desire the Courteous Reader to ascribe it not to my Cause which is very good against his Lordship but to the narrowness of my Comprehensions and my Weakness compared with his
day of August 1643. That this Book Intituled ROME's MASTER-PIECE be forthwith Printed by Michael Sparke Senior John White LONDON Printed for Ri Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's ChurchYard M DC XCV ROME's MASTER-PIECE IF there be any professing the Protestant Religion within the King's Dominions or elsewhere who are yet so wilfully blinded as not to discern so sottishly incredulous as not to believe any real long-prosecuted Conspiracy by former secret Practices and the present Wars to extirpate the Protestant Religion re-establish Popery and inthrall the People in all three Kingdoms notwithstanding all visible effects and transparent demonstrations of it lively set forth in the late Declaration of the Lords and Commons concerning the Rise and Progress of the Grand Rebellion in Ireland and other Remonstrances of that nature let them now advisedly fix their Eyes Minds upon the ensuing Letters and Discoveries seised on by Master Prynn in the Arch-Bishop's Chamber in the Tower May 31. 1643. by Warrant from the close Committee unexpectedly commanded on that service and then they must needs acknowledge it an indubitable verity Since Sir William Boswell the Arch-Bishop and those who revealed this Plot were perswaded of its reality upon the first Discovery before it brake forth openly in Ireland and England Who and what the Author of this Discovery was who the chief active Instruments in the Plot when and where they assembled in what vigorous manner they daily prosecuted it how effectually they proceeded in it how difficult it is to dissolve or counterwork it without special diligence the Relation it self will best discover Whose verity if any question these Reasons will inforce belief First That the Discoverer was a chief Actor in this Plot sent hither from Rome by Cardinal Barbarino to assist Con the Pope's Legate in the pursuit of it and privy to all the particulars therein discovered Secondly That the horrour and reality of the Conspiracy so troubled his Conscience as it ingaged him to disclose it yea to renounce that bloody Church and Religion which contrived it though bred up in preferred by it and promised greater advancements for his diligence in this Design Thirdly That he discovered it under an Oath of Secresie and offered to confirm every particular by solemn Oath Fourthly That he discovers the Persons principally imployed in this Plot the places and times of their secret Conventions their manner and diligence in the pursuit of it with all other Circumstances so punctually as leaves no place for doubt Fifthly The principal Conspirators nominated by him are notoriously known to be fit instruments for such a wicked design Sixthly Many particulars therein have immediate relation to the King and Arch-Bishop to whom he imparted this Discovery and durst not reveal any thing for Truth which they could disprove on their own knowledge Seventhly Sir William Boswell and the Arch-Bishop if not the King himself were fully satisfied that it was real and most important Eighthly Some particulars are ratified by the Arch-Bishop's Testimony in the Memorials of his own Life written with his own Hand some Years before and others so apparent that most intelligent Men in Court or City were acquainted with them whiles they were acting though ignorant of the Plot. Finally The late sad effects of this Conspiracy in all three Kingdoms in prosecution of this design compared with it are such a convincing Evidence of its reality and God's admirable hand of Providence in bringing this concealed Plot so seasonably to light by an instrument unexpectedly rarsed from the Grave of Exile and Imprisonment to search the Arch-Bishop's Papers who had seised his in former times and shut him up close Prisoner in a Foreign Dungeon such a Testimony from Heaven super-added to the premises that he who deems it an Imposture may well be reputed an 〈◊〉 if not a Monster of Incredulity The first Overture and larger Relation of the Plot it self were both writ in Latin as they are here Printed and faithfully translated word for word as near as the Dialect will permit All which premised the Letters and Plot here follow in order Sir William Boswell's first Letter to the Arch-Bishop concerning the Plot. May it please your Grace THE offers whereof your Grace will find a Copy here inclosed towards a further and more particular discovery were 〈◊〉 made unto me at the second hand and in speech by a Friend of good Quality and Woith in this place But soon after as soon as they could be put into Order were avowed by the principal Party and delivered me in writing by both together Upon Promise and Oath which I was required to give and gave accordingly not to reveal the same to any other Man living but your Grace and by your Graoe's Hand unto his Majesty In like manner they have tyed themselves not to declare these things unto any other but my self until they should know how his Majesty and your Grace would dispose thereof The Principal giving me withal to know That he puts himself and this Secret into your Grace's power As well because it 〈◊〉 your Grace so nearly after his Majesty As that he knows your Wisdom to guide the same aright and is assured of your Graces Fidelity to his Majesty's Person to our State and to our Church First Your Grace is humbly and earnestly Prayed to signifie his Majesty's Pleasure with all possible speed together with your Grace's Disposition herein and purpose to carry all with Silence from all but his Majesty until due time Secondly When your Grace shall think fit to shew these things unto his Majesty to do it immediately not trusting to Letters or permitting any other person to be by or in hearing And to intreat and councel his Majesty as in a case of Conscience to keep the same wholly and solely in his own Bosom from the knowledge of all other Creatures living but your Grace until the Business shall be clear and sufficiently in his Majesty's and your Grace's Hands to effect Thirdly Not to enquire or demand the Names of the parties from whom these Overtures do come or any farther discoveries and advertisements in pursuit of them which shall come hereafter until due satisfaction shall be given in every part of them Nor to bewray unto any person but his Majesty in any measure or kind that any thing of this nature or of any great importance is come from me For as I may believe these Overtures are verifiable in the way they will be layed and that the parties will not shrink So I make account That if never so little a glimpse or shadow of these Informations shall appear by his Majesty's or your Grace's Speech or Carriage unto others the means whereby the business may be brought best unto Tryal will be utterly disappointed And the parties who have in Conserence towards God and Devotion to his Majesty Affection to your Grace and Compassion of our Country disclosed these things will run a present and extream
herewith presently to me I will send an Express away with it presently In the mean time I have by this Express returned him this Answer That I think he shall do well to hold on the Treaty with these Men with all Care and Secresy and drive on to the Discovery so soon as the Business is ripe for it that he may assure himself and them they shall not want reward if they do the Service That for my part he shall be sure of Secresy and that I am most confident that your Majesty will not impart it to any That he have a special Eye to the Eighth and Ninth Proposition Sir for Gods sake and your own safety secresy in this business And I beseech you send me back this Letter and all that comes with it spedily and secretly and trust not your own Pockets with them I shall not eat nor sleep in quiet till I receive them And so soon as I have them again and your Majesty's Warrant to proceed no diligence shall be wanting in me to help on the Discovery This is the greatest business that ever was put to me And if I have herein proposed or done any thing amiss I most humbly crave your Majesty's pardon But I am willing to hope I have not herein erred in judgment and in fidelity I never will These Letters came to me on Thursday Septemb. 10. at night and I sent these away according to the date hereof being extreamly wearied with writing this Letter copying out these other which come with this and dispatching my Letters back to him that sent these all in my own hand Once again secrecy for God's sake and your own To his most blessed Protection I commend your Majesty and all your Affairs And am York 13. Lambeth Septemb. 11. 1640. Your Majesty's most humble faithful servant W. Cant. As I had ended these whether with the labour or indignation or both I fell into an extream faint Sweat I pray God keep me from a Fever of which three are down in my Family at Croyden These Letters came late to me the Express being beaten back by the Wind. The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own Hand Received from the King Sept. 16. 1640. For your Sacred Majesty Yours Apostyled The King's Answer to the Plot against him c. Sir William Boswell's second Letter to the Arch-Bishop May it please your Grace THis Evening late I have received your Grace's dispatch with the enclosed from his Majesty by my Secretary Oueart and shall give due account with all possible speed of the same according to his Majesty's and your Grace's Commands praying heartily that my Endeavours which shall be most faithful may also prove effectual to his Majesty's and your Grace's content with which I do most humbly take leave being always Hagh 24. Sept. 1640. S. Angelo Your Grace's most dutiful and humble servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Sept. 30. 1640. Sir William Boswell his acknowledgment that he hath received the King's directions and my Letters Sir William Boswell's third Letter to the Arch-Bishop sent with the larger Discovery of the Plot. May it please your Grace UPon receipt of his Majesty's Commands with your Grace's Letters of 9. and 18. Sept. last I dealt with the party to make good his offers formerly put in my Hand and transmitted to your Grace This he hopes to have done by the inclosed so far as will be needful for his Majesty's satisfaction yet if any more particular explanation or discovery shall be required by his Majesty or your Grace He hath promised to add thereunto whatsoever he can remember and knows of truth And for better assurance and verification of his integrity he professeth himself ready if required to make Oath of what he hath already declared or shall hereafter declare in the business His Name he conjures me still to conceal Though he thinks his Majesty and your Grace by the Character he gives of himself will easily imagine who he is having been known so generally through Court and City as he was for three or four Years in the quality and imployment he acknowledgeth by his Declaration inclosed himself to have held Hereupon he doth also redouble his most humble and earnest suit unto his Majesty and your Grace to be most secret and circumspect in the Business that he may not be suspected to have discovered or had a hand in the same I shall here humbly beseech your Grace to let me know what I may further do for his Majesty's Service or for your Grace's particular behoof that I may accordingly endeavour to approve my self as I am Hague 15. Octob. 1640. Your Grace's most dutiful and obliged servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Octob. 14. 1640. Sir William Boswell in prosecution of the great Business If any thing come to him in Cyphers to send it to him The large particular Discovery of the Plot and Treason against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scottish Wars Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord. WE have willingly and cordially perceived that our offers have been acceptable both to his Royal Majesty and likewise to your Grace This is the only Index to us That the blessing of God is present with you whereby a spur is given that we should so much the more cheerfully and freely utter and detect those things whereby the hazard of both your Lives the subversion of the Realm and State both of England and Scotland the tumbling down of his Excellent Majesty from his Throne is intended Now lest the Discourse should be enlarged with superfluous circumstances we will only premise some things which are meerly necessary to the business They may first of all 〈◊〉 that this good Man by whom the ensuing things are detected was born and bred in the Popish Religion who spent many Years in Ecclesiastical dignities At length being found fit for the expedition of the present Design by the counsel and mandate of the Lord Cardinal Barbarino he was adjoyned to the assistance of Master Cuneus Cun by whom he was found so diligent and sedulous in his Office that hope of great promotion was given to him Yet he led by the instinct of the good Spirit hath howsoever it be contemned sweet promises and having known the vanities of the Pontifician Religion of which he had sometime been a most severe defender having likewise noted the Malice of those who fight under the Popish Banner felt his Conscience to be burdened which Burden that he might case himself of he converted his Mind to the Orthodox Religion Soon after that he might exonerate his Conscience he thought 〈◊〉 that a desperate Treason machinated against so many Souls was to be revealed and that he should receive ease if he vented such things into the Bosom of a Friend Which done he was seriously admonished by the said Friend that he should shew an Example of his Conversion and Charity and free
so many innocent Souls from imminent Danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in Writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the Hinge of the Business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those Factions with which all Christendom is at this Day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the First Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble reform the State of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the Third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court Businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in Civil Affairs Of the Fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies Men of Inferiour condition who submit themselves to the services of great Men Princes Barons Noblemen Citizens to deceive or corrupt the Minds of their Masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth For scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than Fifty Scottish Jesuits There the said Society hath elected to it self a seat of Iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed Society hath determined to effect an universal Reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said Society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowledgeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarino his Substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the Society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose Bosom these Dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the Residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontif by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarino to work so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Pope's Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Pope's Legat an universal Instrument of the conjured Society and a serious promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all the other Intelligencers the present good Man the Communicator of all these things did receive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief Men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the Pontifician Party He inticed many with various Incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other Vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hamptoncourt likewise at London to undertake the cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his Intercession persuade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of Peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised not that they should be consented to lest peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuncus smelling from the Arch-Bishop most trusty to the King that the King's Mind was wholly pendulous or doubtful resolved That he would move every Stone and apply his Forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinal's Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the Name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher Promises that he might corrupt his sincere Mind Yet a sitting ocasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Arch-Bishop for the Scorpion sought an Egg Free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel likewise by Secretary Windebank The intercession of all which being neglected he did fly the Company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the Plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits from whom he intercepted access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their Factions by which means every incitement breathing a Magnetical attractive power to the Popish Party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three Years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the King's part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard Rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishop's part that he had laboured in vain his Malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot Soon after Ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a Sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his Mind that he was of this Opinion that every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious Man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the Criminal execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire Which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion the Flames of which Fire the subsequent book of Prayers increases 9. In this heat a certain Scottish-Earl called Maxfield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish party with whom two other Scottish Earls Papists held correspondency He ought to stir up the People
to Commotion and rub over the injury afresh that he might inflame their Minds precipitate them to Arms by which the hurtful Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be slain 10. There by one Labour Snares are prepared for the King for this purpose the present business was so ordered that very many of the English should adhere to the Scots That the King should remain inferiour in Arms who thereupon should be compelled to crave assistance from the Papists which yet he should not obtain unless he would descend into Conditions by which he should permit †Universal liberty of the exercise of the Popish Religion for so the affairs of the Papists would succeed according to their desire To which consent if he should shew himself more difficult there should be a present remedy at hand For the King's Son growing now very fast to his youthful age who is educated from his tender age that he might accustom himself to the Popish Party the King is to be dispatched For an Indian Nut stuffed with most sharp Poyson is kept in the Society which Cuneus at that time shewed often to me in a boasting manner wherein a Poyson was prepared for the King after the Example of his Father 11. In this Scottish Commotion the Marquess of Hamelton often dispatched to the Scots in the name of the King to interpose the Royal Authority whereby the heat of minds might be mitigated returned notwithstanding as often without Fruit and without ending the business His Chaplain at that time repaired to us who communicated some things secretly with Cuneus Being demanded of me in Jest Whether also the Jews agreed with the Samaritans Cuneus thereunto answered Would to God all Ministers were such as he What you will may be hence conjectured 12. Things standing thus there arrived at London from Cardinal Richelieu Mr. Thomas Chamberlain his Chaplain and Almoner a Scot by Nation who ought to assist the College of the Confederated Society and seriously to set forward the business to leave nothing unattempted whereby the first heat might be exasperated For which service he was promised the Reward of a Bishoprick He cohabited with the Society four Months space neither was it lawful for him first to depart until things succeeding according to his wish he might be able to return back again with good News 13. Sir Toby Matthew a Jesuited Priest of the Order of Politicians a most vigilant Man of the chief Heads to whom a Bed was never so dear that he would rest his Head thereon refreshing his Body with Sleep in a Chair for an Hour or two neither Day nor Night spared his Machinations a Man principally noxious and himself the Plague of the King and Kingdom of England a most impudent Man who flies to all Banquets and Feasts called or not called never quiet always in action and perpetual motion thrusting himself into all Conversations of Superiours he urgeth Conferences familiarly that he may fish out the Minds of Men whatever he observeth thence which may bring any Commodity or Discommodity to the Part of the Conspirators he communicates to the Pope's Legat the more secret things he himself writes to the Pope or to Cardinal Barbarino In sum he adjoins himself to any Man's Company no Word can be spoken that he will not lay hold on and accommodate to his Party In the mean time whatever he hath sished out he reduceth into a Catalogue and every Summer carrieth it to the General Consistory of the Jesuits Politicks which secretly meets together in the Province of Wales where he is an acceptable Guest There Councils are secretly hammer'd which are most meet for the Convulsion of the Ecclesiastick and Politick Estate of both Kingdoms 14. Captain Read a Scot dwelling in Longacre-street near the Angel-Tavern a Secular Jesuit who for his detestable Office performed whereby he had perverted a certain Minister of the Church with secret Incitements to the Popish Religion with all his Family taking his Daughter to Wife for a Recompence obtained a Rent or Impost upon Butter which the Country People are bound to render to him procured for him from the King by some chief Men of the Society who never want a Spur whereby he may be constantly detained in his Office In his House the Business of the whole Plot is concluded where the Society which hath conspired against the King the Lord Archbishop and both Kingdoms meet together for the most part every Day But on the Day of the Carriers or Posts dispatch which is ordinarily Friday they meet in greater numbers for then all the Intilligencers assemble and confer in common what things every of them hath fished out that Week who that they may be without suspicion send their Secrets by Toby Matthew or Read himself to the Pope's Legat he transmits the compacted Pacquet which he hath purchased from the Intelligencers to Rome With the same Read the Letters brought from Rome are deposited under feigned Titles and Names who by him are delivered to all to whom they appertain for all and every of their Names are known to him Vpon the very same occasion Letters also are brought hither under the covert of Father Philip he notwithstanding being ignorant of things from whom they are distributed to the Conspirators There is in that very House a publick Chapel wherein an ordinary Jesuit consecrates and dwells there In the said Chapel Masses are daily celebrated by the Jesuits and it serves for the Baptizing of the Children of the House and of some of the Conspirators Those who assemble in the forenamed House come frequently in Coaches or on Horse-back in Lay-mens Habit and with a great Train wherewith they are disguised that they may not be known yet they are Jesuits and conjured Members of the Society 15. All the Papists of England contribute to this Assembly lest any thing should be wanting to promote the undertaken Design Vpon whose Treasury one Widow owner of the Houses wherein Secretary Windebank now dwelleth dead above three Years since bestowed four hundred thousand English Pounds so likewise others contribute above their Abilities so as the Business may be promoted unto its desired End 16. Besides the foresaid Houses there are Conventicles also kept in other more secret places of which verily they confide not even among themseves for fear lest they should be discovered First every of them are called to certain Inns one not knowing of the other hence they are severally led by Spies to the place where they ought to meet otherwise ignorant where they ought to assemble le st peradventure they should be surprised at unawares 17. The Countess of Arundel a strenuous She-Champion of the Popish Religion bends all her Nerves to the universal Reformation whatsoever she hears at the Kings Court that is done secretly or openly in Words or Deeds she presently imparts to the Popes Legat with
whom she meets thrice a Day sometimes in Arundel-House now at the Court or at Tarthal He scarce sucks such things by the Claw The Earl himself called now about three Years since this Year ought to go to Rome without doubt to consult there of serious things concerning the Design With gifts and Speeches the Jesuits watch diligently to their Masses At Greenwich at the Earl's costs a Feminine School is maintained which otherwise is a Monastery of Nuns for the young Girls therein are sent forth hither and thither into foreign Monasteries beyond the Seas 18. Mr. Porter of the King's Bed-Chamber most addicted to the Popish Religion is a bitter Enemy of the King he reveals all his greatest Secrets to the Popes Legat although he very rarely meets with him yet his Wife meets him so much the oftner who being informed by her Husband conveighs secrets to the Legat. In all his Actions he is nothing inferiour to Toby Matthew it cannot be uttered how diligently he watcheth on the Business His Sons are secretly instructed in the Popish Religion openly they profess the Reformed The Eldest is now to receive his Father's Office under the King which shall be A Cardinals Hat is provided for the other if the Design shall succeed well Above three Years past the said Mr. Porter was to be sent away by the King to Morocco But he was prohibited by the Society lest the Business should suffer delay thereby He is a Patron of the Jesuits for whom for the exercise of Religion he provides Chappels both at home and abroad 19. Secretary Windebank a most sierce Papist is the most unfaithful to the King of all Men who not only betrays and reveals even the King 's greatest Secrets but likewise communicates Counsels by which the Design may be best advanced He at least thrice every Week converseth with the Legat in Nocturnal Conventicles and reveals those things which he thinks fit to be known for which end he hired a House near to the Legat's House whom he often resorts to through the Garden-door for by this vicinity the Meeting is facilitated The said Secretary is bribed with Gifts to the Party of that conjured Society by whom he is sustained that he may the more seriously execute his Office He sent his 〈◊〉 expresly to Rome who ought to insinuate himself into the Roman Pontif. 20. Sir Digby Sir Winter Mr. Mountague the younger who hath been at Rome my Lord Sterling a Cousin of the Earl of Arundel's a Knight the Countess of Neuport the Dutchess of Buckingham and many others who have sworn into this Conspiracy are all most vigilant in the Design Some of these are inticed with the hope of Court others of Political Offices others attend to the sixteen Cardinals Caps that are vacant which are therefore detained idle for some years that they may impose a vain hope on those who expect them 21. The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest dead above three years since He had a Palace adorned with lascivious Pictures which counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was palliated a Monastery wherein forty Nuns were maintained hid in so great a Palace It is situated in Queen-street which the Statue of a golden Queen adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought all this Street and have reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is tacitly built with this hope that it might be openly finished as soon as the universal Reformation was begun The Pope's Legat useth a threefold Character or Cypher one wherewith he communicates with all Nuncios another other with Cardinal Barbarino only a third wherewith he covers some great Secrets to be communicated Whatever things he either receiveth from the Society or other Spies those he packs up together in one Bundle dedicated under this Inscription To Monsieur Stravio Arch-Deacon of Cambray from whom at last they are promoted to Rome These things being thus ordered if every thing be laid to the balance it will satisfie in special all the Articles propounded WHEREIN 1. THe Conspiracy against the King and Lord Arch-Bishop is detected and the means whereby ruin is threatned to both demonstrated 2. The imminent Dangers to both Kingdoms are rehearsed 3. The rise and progress of that Scottish Fire is related 4. Means whereby the Scottish Troubles may be appeased are suggested for after the Scots shall know by whom and to what end their Minds are incensed they will speedily look to themselves neither will they suffer the Forces of both Parts to be subdued lest a middle Party interpose which seeks the ruin of both 5. With what Sword the King's Throat is assaulted even when these Stirs shall be ended Cuneus his Confession and a visible Demonstration sheweth 6. The Place of the Assembly in the House of Captain Read is nominated 7. The day of the eight days dispatch by Read and the Legat is prescribed 8. How the Names of the Conspirators may be known 9. Where this whole Congregation may be circumvented 10. Some of the principal unfaithful ones of the King's Party are notified by name many of whose Names occur not yet their Habitations are known their Names may be easily extorted from Read If these things be warily proceeded in the strength of the whole Business will be brought to light so the Arrow being foreseen the Danger shall be avoided which that it may prosperously succeed the Omnipotent Creator grant The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own Hand Rece Octob. 14. 1640. The Narration of the great Treason concerning which he promised to Sir William Boswell to discover against the King and State Illustrissime ac Reverendissime Domine ACcepta suae Regiae Majestati simulac Reverentiae Tuae fuisse offerta nostra lubentes ex animo percepimus Adesse vobis benignitatem Numinis hoc unicum nobis Index est quo stimulus datur ut tantò alacrius liberaliusque illa quibus vitae discrimen utriusque statusque Regni Angliae tum Scotiae eximiae Majestatis sede deturbatio intendatur effundamus detegamus Ne autem ambagibus superfluis dilatetur Oratio nonnulla quae tantum ad rem necessaria praemittemus Sciant primò bonum istum virum per quem sequentia deteguntur in pulvere isto Pontificio esse natum educatum qui in dignitatibus Ecclesiasticis aetates consumpsit Tandem praesentis Negotii expeditioni par inventus Consilio Mandato Domini Cardinalis Barbarini ad auxilium Domino Cuneo adjunctus est penes quem in officio ita diligens ac sedulus inventus ut spes magnae promotionis ipsi data fuerit Ipse verò boni Spiritus ductus instinctu ut dulcia promissa contempsit agnitisque Religionis Pontificiae vanitatibus quarum alias defensor fuerat severissimus malitia etiam sub vexillo Papali militantium notata gravari Conscientiam suam senserat quod Onus ut deponeret ad Orthodoxam
He who sails in the midst of dangerous Rocks may justly fear and expect a Wrack Eighthly That the late Scottish Trouble and Wars were both plotted and raised by these Jesuitical Conspirators of purpose to force the King to resort to them and their Popish Party for Aid of Men and Money against the Scots and by Colour thereof to raise an Army of their own to gain the King into their Power and then to win or force him to what Conditions they pleased who must at least-wise promise them an universal Toleration of their Religion throughout his Dominions e're they will yield to assist him And in case they conquer or prevail he must then come fully over to their Party or else be sent packing by them with a poysoned Fig to another World as his Father they say was it 's likely by their Instruments or Procurement they are so conusant of it and then the Prince yet young and well enclined to them already by his Education being got into their Hands by this wicked Policy shall soon be made an Obedient Son of the Church of Rome Thus the Relator a chief Actor in this pre-plotted Treason discovers And if his single Testimony though out of a wounded Conscience will not be believed alone the ensuing Circumstances will abundantly manifest the Scottish Wars to be plotted and directed by them For Con the Pope's Legat Hamilton the Queen's Agent most of the Jesuits then about London Captain Read their Host the Lord Sterling with other chief Actors in the Plot being all Scots and employing Maxfield and he two other Popish Scots in raising these Tumults the Earl of Arundel another principal Member of this Conspiracy being by their procurement made General of the first Army against the Scots and most of his Commanders Papists the Papists in all Counties of England upon the Queen's Letters directed to them contributing large Sums of Money besides Men Arms and Horses to maintain this War Sir Toby Matthew the most Industrious Conspirator in the Pack making a Voyage with the Lord Deputy into Ireland to stir up the Papists there to contribute Men Arms Moneys to subdue the Scottish Covenanters yea Marquess Hamilton's own Chaplain employed as the King's Commissioner to appease these Scots holding Correspondency with Con and resorting to him in private to impart the Secrets of that business to him the general Discontent of the Papists and Conspirators upon the first Pacification of those Troubles which they soon after infringed and by new Contributions raised a second Army against the Scots when the English Parliament refused to grant Subsidies to maintain the War All these concurring Circumstances compared with the Relation will ratifie it past Dispute that this War first sprung from these Conspirators Ninthly That the subsequent present Rebellion in Ireland and Wars in England originally issued from and were plotted by the same Conspirators For the Scottish War producing this setled Parliament beyond their expectation which they foresaw would prove fatal to this their long-agitated Conspiracy if it continued undissolved thereupon some Popish Irish Commissioners coming over into England and confederating with the Dutchess of Buckingham Captain Read and other of these Conspirators who afterwards departed secretly into Ireland they plotted an universal Rebellion Surprisal and Massacre of all the Protestants in that Kingdom which though in part prevented by a timely discovery securing Dublin and some few Places else yet it took general Effect in all other Parts to the loss of about an Hundred and Forty Thousand Protestants Lives there massacred by them And finding themselves likely to be overcome there by the Parliament's Forces sent hence and from Scotland to relieve the Protestant Party thereupon to work a Diversion they raised a Civil Bloody War against the Parliament here in England procuring the King after Endymion Porter a principal Conspirator in the Plot had gained the Custody of the Great Seal of England to issue out divers Proclamations under the great Seal proclaiming the Parliament themselves Traytors and Rebels to grant Commissions to Irish and English Papists contrary to his former Proclamations to raise Popish Forces both at Home and in Foreign parts for his Defence as his trustiest and most loyal Subjects to send Letters and Commissions of Favour to the Irish Rebels and hinder all Supplies from hence to the Protestant Party And withal they procured the Queen by the Earl of Antrim and Dutchess of Buckingham's Mediation to send Ammunition to the Irish Rebels and to attempt to raise an Insurrection in Scotland too as the Declaration of the Rise and Progress of the Rebellion in Ireland more largely discovers Seeing then all may clearly discern the exact Prosecution of this Plot carried on in all these Wars by the Conspirators therein particularly nominated by the Queen and Popish Party in all Three Kingdoms and in Foreign Parts too who have largely contributed Men Money Arms Ammunition to accomplish this Grand Design through the Instigation of those Conspirators in this Plot who are gone beyond the Seas and have lately caused publick Proclamations to be made in Bruges and other parts of Flanders in July last as appears by the Examination of Henry Mayo since seconded by others That all People who will now give ANY MONEY TO MAINTAIN THE RO-MAN CATHOLICKS IN ENGLAND should have it repaid them again in a Years time with many Thanks the whole World must now of Necessity both see and acknowledge unless they will renounce their own Eyes and Reason that this Conspiracy and Plot is no feigned Imposture but a most real perspicuous agitated Treachery now driven on almost to its Perfection the full Accomplishment whereof unless Heaven prevent it the Catholicks of England expect within the Circuit of one Year as the forenamed Proclamations intimate Tenthly That no setled Peace was ever formerly intended nor can now be futurely expected in England or Ireland without an universal publick Toleration at the least of Popery and a Repeal and Suspension of all Laws against it this being the very Condition in the Plot which the King must condescend to e're the Papists would engage themselves to assist him in these Wars thus raised by them for this end And that none may doubt this Verity the late most insolent bold Demands of the Irish Rebels in the Treaty with them the present Suspension of all Laws against Priests and Recusants in all Counties under his Majesty's Power the uncontrolled multitudes of Masses in his Armies Quarters Wales the North and elsewhere the open Boasts of Papists every where most really proclaim it And if the King after all their many Years restless Labour Plot Costs Pains and pretended Fidelity to his Cause against the Parliament should deny these Merit-mongers such a diminutive Reward as this is the very least they will expect now they have him the Prince and Duke within their Custody Bristol Chester Ireland all his Forccs in their Power this Discoverer an Eye and
Ear-witness of his Destiny from the Legat's own Vaunt will inform his Majesty and all his Protestant Subjects who will tremble at the very apprehension of it that they have an Indian poisoned Nut reserved for him amongst this Jesuitical Society or if it be lost a poisoned Knife perchance or some other Instrument to dispatch him out of the World and to get the possession and protection of the Prince whom they will educate in their Antichristian Religion which how possible how probable it is for them considering their present Power and Endeavours to effect it their poisoning of the Emperour Henry the Seventh in the sacred Host of King John in the Chalice their stabbing of Henry the Third of France with a Knife in the Belly of Henry the Fourth his Successor first in the Mouth next in the Heart-strings though all of their own Religion because they would not humour the Pope in every unreasonable Demand though Henry the Fourth turned an Apostate from the Protestant Religion wherein he was bred restored the Jesuits formerly banished out of France rased the Pillar erected in Paris as a standing Monument of their Treasons against their Sovereigns and built them a stately College to secure his Life from their Assassination which yet would not save him from their Butchery Together with their pistolling of the Prince of Orange and poisoning of King James himself as the Legat boasted may inform his Majesty and all his faithful Protestant Subjects especially such as by their confederating with them in these their Wars have done nought but executed their fore-named Designs whom it concerns now very nearly to prevent if possible such a sad Catastrophe of that bloody Tragedy which hath been acted over-long in Ireland and England by these Conspirators fore-plotted Treasons The execrable Horrridness and Reality whereof made the very Discoverer of the Plot out of remorse of Conscience to desert the Conspirators Conspiracy and that bloody Religion which begot it and therefore should much more incite all such in his Majesty's Army who are cordially faithful to their Sovereign Religion Country Posterity and have hitherto ignorantly acted these Conspirators Treasonable Designs under colour of serving the King to consider with remorse of Conscience whose Instruments they have thus long been whose Treasons they have ripened what Protestant Blood they have shed how much they have weakened impoverished betrayed their own Protestant Party who have really stood for God Religion King Country Parliament against these Romish Conspirators and what Hopes what Advantages they have given these Confederates both in England and Ireland to over-top suppress and ere long utterly to extirpate the Protestant Religion themselves and all others who cordially profess it as they have done many thousands of them already And then upon all these sad most serious Considerations the very Thoughts whereof should cause their Souls to bleed and tremble speedily to desert these traiterous Papists ere they get all into their Power and unite all their Heads Hearts Hands Forces to the Parliament's Party who had so good cause to take up defensive Arms to prevent the imminent ruin which otherwise is like to befal both King Kingdom Religion Parliament Liberty Property Posterity ere we be aware especially since the most cowardly unworthy yielding up of Bristol a fit Inlet for the Irish Rebels who have conspired to come over hither with all expedition and Welsh Papists to cut all our Throats Eleventhly That those Protestants who now side with Popish Conspirators when they have accomplished their Designs whatsoever they may now fancy to themselves shall find no more Mercy or Favour from them than the greatest Roundheads if they comply not with them in all things and even in Popery it self For if they will not spare the King 's own Person and Life after so many Favours Graces extended to them as they will not if we believe this Relation or the late Story of King Henry the Fourth of France yet fresh in memory what inferiour Person can think to be secure to fare better than the King himself And if Con the Legat to insinuate himself into the King's and Palatine's Favours at the first when he had no interest in them would not so much as advise the Legat of Cologne to mediate for the Palsgrave lest peradventure the King of Spain should report that the Pope had Patroniz'd an Heretical Prince as the Relation attests though he promised the King effectually to do it How can Prince Rupert Maurice or any other Commanders in the King's Army when they have fully accomplished the Pope's and these his Instruments Designs under whose Banner they ignorantly yet really militate and promote his Cause instead of the King 's and Kingdoms to whom they and others have been so much engaged hope to receive the least Dram of Favour Pity much less any Recompence from the Pope and Popish Party if they continue Hereticks still notwithstanding all their present goodly Promises Will they part with any other Inheritances to them then who will not so much as now mediate for them to regain their own Will these who have butchered so many thousands of innocent Protestants in Ireland in England even before they were sure of the Day without any provocation given spare any Mother's Son of them alive if they once erect their Trophies over them Certainly the Experience of all former Ages compared with the present may fully resolve all That the very tender Mercies of these wicked ones will be nought but extream Cruelty and if they prevail we all must perish without distinction sooner or later unless we will turn Apostates and lose our Religion God Heaven Souls to save our transitory Lives Finally Therefore let the serious Consideration of all the Premises instruct us to learn Wisdom from these our Adversaries let their indefatigable Industry subtil Policy sincere Fidelity chearful Constancy bountiful Liberality fraternal Unanimity undaunted Magnanimity indissolvable Confederacy and uninterrupted Pertinacy in prosecuting establishing propagating their Antichristian Religions Treasons Designs excite all Protestants according to their several late Covenants and Protestations much forgotten to equalize if not transcend them in all these in defending securing propagating our true Christian Religion protecting our King Kingdoms Parliament Laws Liberties Posterities all we yet have or hereafter hope for from that imminent ruin which these Popish Conspirators threaten to them Fore-warn'd fore-arm'd If now we perish through our own private Dissentions Folly Cowardise Covetousness Treachery or Security or monstrous Credulity that these Conspirators and Papists now in Arms fight only for the King and establishment of the Protestant Religion as it was in Queen Elizabeth's days against whom they plotted so many Treasons even for her very Religion and the Powder-Plot since against King James and the whole Parliament our Blood shall rest upon our own Heads who would not take timely notice of our incumbent Dangers nor suddenly prevent them whiles we might THE EXAMINATION OF HENRY