ancient Britains 49 St. Marcellus in Britain 122 Marriage of the King 262 of the Queen 266 Mary Queen of Scotland expelled her Kingdom by Presbyterian Rebels 169 Missletoe 34 Mixed Monarchy 63 Monarchy 52 Money of the ancient Britains 46 Monks according to the Rule of St. Mark the Evangelist 129 N NAme of Britain 2 of the Monarch of Great Britain 175 of the present King 244 of the Queen 263 Nations erected at the Confusion of Tongues Seventy two 55 Nimrod 64 Noah divided the Earth amongst his Sons 54 O OFfice of the King of Great Britain 193 Ogmius a God of the Britains 28 Onvana a Goddess of the Britains 27 Prince of Orange 286 Original of Monarchy 52 of the Family of the Stuarts 162 Ostorius Scapula Governor of Britain 99 P PAinting of the ancient Britains 44 St. Paul the Apostle in Britain 119 Peace enjoyed by no People without Monarchy 68 Period of the British Kingdom 155 Persecution of the Christians in Britain 130 Person of the King 188 St. Peter the Apostle in Britain 118 St. Peters Cornhil built 128 Petilius Crealis Governor of Britain 103 Petronius Turpilianus Governour of Britain ibid. Phoenicians in Britain 21 Picts 22 Picts and Scots annoy the Britains 144 A Plautius sent into Britain 94 Portion of the Queen 267 Prerogatives of the King 193 Priests of the ancient Britains 28 Prince Elector Palatine 288 Proclamations 196 Progeny of Cadwalladar continued to his present Majesty 163 Punishments of the ancient Britains 38 R REcords of the antient Britains 40 Recreation of the antient Britains 45 Religion of the antient Britains 25 Respect of the King 220 Restauration of the King 256 Right of Government descends to the eldest Son 54 Rights and Priviledges of the People originally the Concessions of Princes 61 Romans in Britain 28 Prince Rupert 289 S SAcrifices of the ancient Britains 32 Saxons 23 hired by the Britains against the Picts and Scots 150 Scots 23 Simplicity of the ancient Britains 36 Shipping of the ancient Britains 46 Soil of Great Britain 10 Soveraignty of the King 203 Queen of Spain 287 Stature of the ancient Britains 40 Strength of the Monarch of Great Britain 181 Succession to the Crown of Great Britain 224 Suetonius Governour of Britain 101 Suetonius a Britain first Planter of Christianity amongst the Helvetians 118 Surname of the King 244 Swiftness of the ancient Britains 41 T TAramis a God of the Britains 26 St. Timotheus Son of Pudens in Britain 122 Title of the King 175 Traffick of the ancient Britains 45 Trinobantes revolt to Caesar 90 Tutates a God of the Britains 26 V VAlor of the ancient Britains 36 Vortigern chosen King of the Britains 146 hires the Saxons 150 Vortimer chosen an Associate to his Father Vortigern in the Kingdom 151 poysoned by the procurement of Rowena 152 Vter Pendragon King of Britain 154 W WAles subjected to the Crown of England 166 Westminster Church built 129 Wicker Image 32 Winchester Church built 129 Y Duke of YOrk 272 His Wives and Children 283 ERRATA PAg. 18. in the Margin read Gascoign then p. 31. lin 18. dele the p. 32. l. 2. r. so to do p. 33. l. 27. r. and Bushes p. 74. l. 12. r. contradicting p. 81. l. 5. r. unlookt-for Accident p. 89. l. 13. r. retired p. 122. l. 21. r. Praxedes p. 131. l. 17. r. Cassock p. 135. l. 17. r. particularly p. 161. l. 18. for not named r. named Nest p. 165. l. 6. r. His inheritance p. 172. l. penult r. hereditary p. 173. l. 9. r. Empire p. 179 l. 20. r. Droit p. 188. l. 18. r. manners p. 199. l. 11. r. Commonweal p. 216. l. 15. r. thirty fifth p 251. in the Marg. r. Scotland p. 266. l. 13. r. her Mother p. 292. l. 28. r. fatality OF BRITAIN In General CHAP. I. Of Britain in the largest Sense BRITAIN in the general and more comprehensive signification contains all those Islands both great and small Extent which lye about Albion or Britain properly so called Ex adverso hujus saith Ptolomey speaking of France Britannia Insula Albion ipsi nomen fuit cum Britanniae omnes vocarentur The whole Dominion of which Islands is at present united under the Command of the King of Great Britain Division They are distinguished into the Greater and Lesser The Greater are Great Britain and Ireland The Lesser are 1 The Orcades 2 The Hebrides 3 Man 4 Anglesey 5 The Islands of the Severn Sea 6 The Sorlinges or Isles of Scilly 7 Wight 8 Thanet 9 Sunderland 10 Holy Island CHAP. II. Of the Name of Britain of its Climate Dimensions Division Air Soil and Commodities Name GREAT BRITAIN or Britain properly so called without comparison the best and most flourishing Island of the whole World is said to have been first named Samothea from Samothes supposed to have reigned here Anno Mundi 1910. It was afterwards called Albion either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happy or ab albis rupibus from its White Cliffs or more probably from King Albion By degrees the Name Britain was appropriated to this Island the rest having their particular Names It was called Britain either from two British Words Pryd and Cain signifying Beauty and White or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Metals or from the British Word Brith Painted the Greeks adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Region or from the Phoenician Word Barat-Anac A Land of Tynne in which sense the British Islands were by the Greeks called Cassiterides or from King Brutus reigning here as is alledged Anno Mundi 2855. It is situated from fifty Degrees six Minutes in the sixteenth Parallel and eighth Climate to sixty Degrees thirty Minutes in the twenty sixth Parallel and thirteenth Climate Climate Lying thus under the eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth and thirteenth Climates Insomuch that the longest Day in the most Northern parts is eighteen Hours and three quarters and the shortest Day in the most Southern neer eight Hours long It is in Length from the Lyzard-Point Southward in Cornwal to the Straithy-head in the North of Scotland Dimensions six hundred twenty four Miles in Breadth from the Lands-end in Cornwal in the West to Dover in the East two hundred and eighty the whole compass thereof allowing for the Turnings and Windings of the Shores is eighteen hundred thirty six Miles thus reckoned From Dunsby-Heate to the Lands-end eight hundred and twelve from the Lands-end to the Foreland of Kent three hundred and twenty from the Foreland of Kent to Dunsby-Heate seven hundred and four It is the greatest Island of the whole World except Java Borneo Sumatra Madagascar and Groenland and was therefore by the Antients to whom these were unknown called The other World It is bounded on the East with the German Ocean dividing it from Belgium Germany and Denmark on the West with St. Georges Chanel separating it from Ireland on the Northwest with the Vergivian or Western Ocean of which the Antients
to make use of that Arbitrary Power whereof tho in the exercise of it he may restrain himself yet he can never be divested to secure himself and people from the Contrivances of malicious and ill-designing Persons Those therefore that argue for Limited or Mixed Monarchies do in effect only plead for Anarchy and Confusion For either these Limits must be such Laws and Bounds as the Monarch has set himself to Govern by to the Observance whereof tho he may by Promise so far engage himself that he cannot as has been said ordinarily transgress them without the Sin of Injustice yet this Promise of his which is but an After-act of Grace not dissolving that absolute Subjection which preceded it his Power if he will sinfully put it forth to act is no less Arbitrary than it was before the making of the Promise Or if you will imagin these Bounds of the Monarchs Power to be ab externo and not from the free Determination of his own Will then the Subject as they say not being legally bound to subjection in case the Prince commands beyond the Law if there arise a Dispute between the Monarch and the meanest of his Subjects about the Legality or Illegality of his Commands either the Monarch himself must be Judge and then farewel Limitation or else the whole people or some part of them and then farewel Monarchy or else there must be no Judge at all and then farewell Government So likewise in that which they call a mixed Monarchy or a Government composed of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy either the Soveraign Power must be Originally in the Monarch and derivatively only in the others and then farewel the Mixture or else it must tho acknowledged to be an indivisible Beam of Divine Perfection be originally shared amongst them all and then farewel the Monarchy So also in this Mixture as they call it of Power if a Difference arise between the Prince and the States there being according to their Principles no Authoritative judge to determin it the Government is dissolved and every man left at liberty to side with that Part which in his Reason and Judgment stands most for publick Good more than which the Wit of Man cannot say for Anarchy The unlimited Jurisdiction of Kings is so strongly asserted in Scripture that it occasioned one who writ in justification of the late Rebellion to affirm That to make a King by the Standard of GOD's Word is to make the Subjects Slaves for Conscience sake Than which I know not whether any thing can be said more impious The Paternal Empire as it was in it self hereditary so was it as other Goods are alienable by Patent and seizable by an Usurper Thus amongst the first Fathers of Families dispersed by the Confusion of Babel was Nimrod who being no doubt by good Right Lord or King over his own Family and not contented therewith did against Right enlarge his Empire by violently seizing on the Rights of other Fathers of Families and laid the Foundation of the first of those great Kingdoms which for the vast Extent of their Dominions were called the four Monarchies of the World Yet this Power he got by Usurpation and not by any Election of or Faction with the People or Multitude The Dominions indeed of Princes anciently were but small consisting generally but of Cities apiece with the adjacent Teritories Thus in a little Corner of Asia nine Kings met at once in Battle In the small Circuit of the Land of Canaan Joshuah destroyed one and thirty Kings Adonibezek made seventy Kings whose Thumbs and Toes he had cut off to feed under his Table Two and thirty Kings came to Benhadad King of Syria and seventy Kings of Greece went to the Wars of Troy But in process of Time partly by Conquest partly by Lineal Succession and partly by the Cession of many little Princes these Petty Kingdoms were united and greater Monarchies erected Whence tho Kings are not now the Natural Parents of their Subjects yet they all either are or are to be reputed the next Heirs to those Progenitors who were at first the Natural Parents of the whole people and as such succeed to the Exercise of Soveraign Jurisdiction not only over their own Children but over their Brethren and all that were subject to their Fathers As long as the first Fathers lived they were properly called Patriarchs but when the Fatherhood it self was extinct and the Right only descended to the next Heir they were more significantly styled Kings and Princes If through Negligence the Knowledge of the true Heir to any Kingdom be lost for the Right it self never can yet does not the Supremacy devolve to the multitude who never yet had right to Rule or choose their Rulers but to the Princes and independent Heads of Families and because the Dependency of ancient Families is frequently obscure and worn out of Knowledge to such persons as the Wisdom of the precedent Monarchs thought fit to adopt for Heads of Families and Princes of Provinces These and none but these have it such Case alone Power to consent in uniting or conferring their Fatherly Right of Soveraign Authority oâ— whom they please Nor does the person thus elected hold his Power as a Donative from the People but from GOD from whom alone he receives his Royal Charter of Universal Father tho testified by the Ministry of the Heads of the People And altho I do not say that all popular Governments are so far unlawful as to oblige them things being as they are to subject themselves to Monarchy yet this I must aver as a most undoubted Truth that no other Government but Monarchy had ever any lawful Original there never having been any Nation which was not for many years governed by Kings untill Wantonness Ambition or Faction of the People made them attempt new wayes of Regiment which Mutations alwayes proved bloody and miserable to their Authors and happy in nothing but the short time of their Duration The Excellency of Monarchy is not only manifest by the Divineness of its Originall Excellency but also by the singular Advantages it has over any other Form of Government The chief End of Government is that the People may according to the Apostle Lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty Consequently whereunto we find that in all Monarchies both before the Law of Moses under it and ever since whether Grecian or Barbarian Jewish or Pagan Christian or Turkish a singular Care has been taken for Religion the Priests whereof have been alwayes had in such Respect and Veneration as to have an eminent Share in the Administration of the Government But in all popular States their main Devotion being exercised only in opposing and suppressing Monarchy their next is to exclude the Clergy from medling with Government wherein the Vnited Netherlands and Venice of which it is commonly said that the one hath all Religions and the other none do at this day
received Hostages he commanded his Navy to sail round Britain whilst himself with slow Marches that he might aw the new-conquered Nations by his Delay in passing placed his Men in their Winter Quarters His Fleet having prosperously and speedily compast the Isle put in at the Port Trutulensis now Richborough neer Sandwich from whence it first set out Agricola envied by the Emperour Domitian in the fourth year of whose Reign Anno CHRISTI 86. this Victory was gotten was soon after recalled leaving his Province to his Successor quiet and secure The Roman Province in Britain extended thus by Agricola as far as Glota Bodotria or the Friths of Dunbritton and Edenborough was by the Emperour Hadrian following the Advice of Augustus and Tiberius to gird the Empire within moderate Bounds reduced to a narrower Compass For he giving the Northern Nations no longer now called Britains but henceforth first Caledonians afterward Picts Scots more Room to Inhabit quitted the colder and more barren Soils reserving only the most delicate Part of the Island which to hinder the Caledonian Boars from breaking in and rooting it up he inclosed like a precious Garden-Plot with a mighty Wall of fourscore Miles in length from the Bay of Itun or Solway-Frith on the Irish Sea to Tinmouth on the German Ocean Which Wall decayed by the Injuries of Time and the Incursions of the Enemy was reedified by the Emperor Septimius Severus who fortified it with a deep Trench and many Turrets erected at such convenient Distances that the Sound of a Trumpet tho against the Wind might be heard from one to another In the same Wall also is said to have been artificially set a Brazen Trunk which running from Tower to Tower served upon the Invasion of the Enemy to give speedy and secret Intelligence But this Wall now lying along and no Pipe remaining many Tenants at this day hold Farms of the King in Cornage whereby they are obliged by winding of an Horn to give Notice to their Neighbours of the Enemies Approach Agricola having thus conquered all the Southern Part of this Island abrogated most of the antient Rites and Customes of the Britains in the Room whereof the Roman Laws Usages and Learning began here to Flourish Their humble Cottages he changed into fair Houses and stately Palaces superb Porticoes and sumptuous Baths Their Diet was now more curious and their Apparel more magnificent Their cumbersome Chariots were turned into the Coaches and delicate Litters of Rome and for the Convenience of Travel Roads and Causies began to be made through the whole Island and paved with Stone CHAP. VI. How Britain was governed under the Romans BRITAIN not being annexed to the Roman Empire till after the Division of Provinces made by Augustus had this Priviledge above other Nations that it was never subject to any Consular or Proconsular Deputy after the manner of other Provinces but was alwayes esteemed to be Praesidialis or under the immediate Protection of the Emperor held by his Garrisons and governed by Lieutenants sent and recalled at his sole Will and Pleasure The Britains had also even within the Roman Pale for a time Kings of their own the last of which was Lucius surnamed Lever-maur who flourished in the time of the Emperour Commodus Antoninus This tho it carried with it a certain shew of Liberty was yet only the usual Method of the Roman State first practiced in the Time of their Democratick Government when their Insolence was such as to make Kings the Instruments of their Ambition whom they first drew up with Plumes of Majesty and seemed even to adore but when their Turns were once served with as great Contempt and Ingratitude according to the constant Humor of Commonwealths they trampled upon them For the governing of Britain one Legat was thought sufficient till the Emperor Septimius Severus finding by experience that it was a Province too great and powerful to be trusted in the hands of one Man first divided it into two Governments committing the North part thereof to Virius Lupus and the South to Heraclytus From the Time of Constantin the Great there were no more Propraetors or Lieutenants in Britain For he having ordained four Prefects of the Praetorium viz. of the East of Illyricum of Italy and of Gaul and two Leaders or Commanders of the Forces the one of the Foot the other of the Horse in the West whom they termed Praesentales ordered the Government of Britain in this manner For Civil Government there ruled over Britain the Prefect of the Praetorium in Gaul whose Vice-gerent was the Vicar General of Britain honored with the Title Spectabilis and having under him according to the number of the Provinces two Consular Deputies and three Presidents who had the hearing of Civil and Criminal Causes For Military Affairs there ruled the Leader or Commander of the Foot in the West under whom were the Count of Britain the Count of the Saxon Coast along Britain and the Duke of Britain every one of which was likewise stiled Spectabilis The Count of Britain seemeth to have ruled the Inland parts of the Island having with him seven Companies of Foot and nine Troops of Horse The Count of the Saxon Coast along Britain who defended the Maritime parts against the Saxons and is by Ammianus called Comes tractûs Maritimi had for Defence of the Sea-coasts seven Companies of Foot two Guidons of Horse the second Legion and one Cohort The Duke of Britain who defended the Frontiers against the Barbarians had the Command of thirty eight Garrison-Forts wherein fourteen thousand Foot and nine hundred Horse kept their Stations so that in those dayes according to the Computation of Pancirolus Britain maintained about nineteen thousand two hundred Foot and seventeen hundred Horse in ordinary Besides these the Comes sacrarum largitionum who managed the Emperors Finances had under him in Britain the Rationalis or Auditor of the Sums or Revenues of Britain the Provost of the Augustian Treasures in Britain and the Procurator of the Gynegium in Britain where the Cloaths of the Emperor and his Souldiers were woven The Comes rerum Privatarum had also his Rational of private State in Britain to say nothing of other inferior Officers CHAP. VII Of the first introducing of Christianity into Britain The Conversion of King Lucius The Persecution under Dioclesian The Establishment of the Christian Faith by Constantin AS the rude and barbarous Manners of the Britains gave place to the Roman Civility so the Bloody Cruelties of their Idolatrous Superstitions were abrogated by the Introduction of Christian Religion for the admittance whereof a Passage was opened by means of the Correspondence between Britain and the rest of the Roman Empire It was in the Year of the World 3966. the two and fortieth of the Emperour Augustus fifty three Years after the first Arrival of Julius Caesar in Britain and the third Year of the British King Cunobelyn the whole World then enjoying a generall Peace
that the Prince of Peace our ever-blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST the only eternal Son of GOD was miraculously born of a pure Virgin in Bethlehem the City of David This our glorious Redeemer having for the space of three and thirty years led a Life no less poor and painful than holy and exemplary offered himself upon a Cross to his eternal Father for to expiate the Sins of Mankind in the eighteenth year of the Emperour Tiberius who having received an Account of the Death of this Saint of Saints as also of his great Vertue and stupendious Miracles from Pilat then Governor of Judea published it in the Senat by whom he would have had CHRIST admitted into the number of the Roman Gods but they displeased that Pilat wrote only to the Emperour and not to them would by no means consent thereunto The Emperour however forbidding upon pain of Death all persons to persecute the Disciples of JESUS Christianity brought into Britain the glorious Gospel preacht by his Apostles upon whom the better to enable them thereunto he had fifty dayes after his Resurrection conferred the Gift of speaking unknown Languages by the Descending of the Holy Ghost did even in the Dayes of this same Tiberius so far extend it self as to spread its bright Beams upon this remote and frozen Island of Britain St. James In the Year of CHRIST 41. being the third of Caligula the holy Apostle St. James returning out of Spain visited amongst other Countreys this our Island and here preached the Gospel the effects whereof were so prevalent that many stiff-necked Britains submitted themselves to the easy Yoke of our Redeemer Amongst these there is recorded one Suetonius born of noble Parentage who being converted to the Christian Faith here in Britain undertook a Voyage to Rome that he might be more perfectly instructed by St. Peter by whom being baptized and named Beatus he was after sufficient Instruction employed in the Apostolical Office of teaching others and became the first Planter of Christianity amongst the Helvetians St. Peter The great hope of happy Success is supposed chiefly to have induced St. Peter when the Jews were banished Rome by the Fmperor Claudius in whose second year he came thither to repair into Britain where he continued a long time converting several Nations and erecting many Churches till warned by Angels after he had constituted and ordained Bishops Priests and Deacons he returned to Rome and was there soon after crowned with Martyrdom A tedious impatience to see the horrible Actions of Nero forced St. Paul also to quit Rome St. Paul and disperse the precious Seed of the Gospel even as far as Britain This is expresly testified by Venantius Fortunatus who in his Poem upon the Life of St. Martin speaking of St. Paul saith Transit Oceanum vel quâ facit Insula Portum Quasque Britannus habet Terras atque ultima Thule With St. Peter or St. Paul St. Aristobulus one of whose Disciples he was is St. Aristobulus supposed to have come into Britain where being made a Bishop he preached the Gospel of CHRIST and having constituted Churches and Ordained Priests and Deacons here happily ended his Life St. Joseph of Arimathea About the latter End of Nero's Reign and before the blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul were consummated by a glorious Martyrdom Suetonius Paulinus being Roman Lieutenant in Britain St. Joseph of Arimathea sent hither as some say by St. Peter or as others by St. Philip the Apostle with eleven Companions entring into this Island addressed himself to the British King Arviragus who not only gave them permission freely to convert his Subjects but extended also his Liberality to them affording them a place of Retreat in an Island called at that time Avalon or the Isle of Apples afterwards by the Britains Iniswytrin or the Glassy Island by the Saxons in the same sense Glastney and by the Latins Glasconia Here the Holy Men made it their first Work to build for the Worship of the only true GOD a Temple or Church which they dedicated to the Memory of the Holy Mother of GOD and perpetual Virgin Mary the Walls whereof were on all sides made of Rods watled or interwoven In this the Fervor and Piety of our primitive Christians was so great that it was deservedly called the Mother of Saints The Memory of this Building was preserved by an Inscription cut in Brass and heretofore fastned to a Pillar in Glastenbury Church which being rehearsed by Bishop Godwyn Sir Henry Spelman caused to be entirely transcribed and put into his Collection of British and English Councels To this their Solitude did St. Joseph and his Companions frequently repair both to repose themseves after their Labors and by undistracted Prayers to renew their Courage and Patience in their Apostolical Employment laying thus the Foundation and giving Example both of Active and Contemplative Life Here did St. Joseph after neer twenty years painful Labors change this mortal Life for an immortal one in the Year of our Lord 82. With him are said to have been buried two Silver Vessels which he had brought along with him filled with the precious Blood of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST The Faith thus planted by these Holy Apostles daily here encreasing the British Christians are said in the Year of our Lord 100. to have sent an Ambassadour to St. Clement then Bishop of Rome desiring him to communicate to them the Rites and Order of celebrating Divine Service About the latter end of Trajans Reign the Roman Bishop St. Evaristus sending a Message to the Britains exhorted them to the Christian Faith The verities whereof the better to propagate his Successor St. Alexander sent hither certain Apostolical Preachers amongst whom are thought to have been St. Marcellus afterwards Bishop of Triers and St. Timotheus Son of Pudens a Roman Senator and Brother to the Holy Virgins St. Praxedes and St. Pudentiana whose Mother is by many supposed to have been the Famous British Lady St. Claudia These gathered into a Flock the Remainders of those who had been converted by St. Joseph of Arimathea and his Companions confirming them in the same Faith which thus watered spread so far that Anno Domini 141. there are said to have been Baptized in Granta since called Cambridge nine Doctors and Scholars About the Year of the Lord 181. the British King Lucius Conversion of King Lucius who had hitherto been kept by its Poverty and want of Worldly Splendor from embracing the Christian Religion to a Liking whereof an Account of the constant Perseverance of the Christians at Rome amidst their great and horrible Persecutions had induced him being now by the Emperors Lieutenants Pertinax and Trebellius informed of the Favor shewn to the Professors of Christianity by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius who having obtained a famous Victory by the Christians Prayers set forth an Edict in their behalf as also of the Increase of their Number
by the Conversion of many of the chiefest Roman Senators began to hearken to the Admonitions of such as taught that Religion here in Britain the Fountain whereof understanding to be at Rome and not knowing of any Ecclesiastical persons in Britain of Authority sufficient to establish here a New Church sent Elvanus of Avallonia and Medwinus of the Province of the Belgae with Letters to St. Eleutherius then sitting in St. Peters Chair desiring from him more perfect Instruction and a greater Authority for setling the common Affairs of Christianity St. Eleutherius together with the same Messengers one of which to wit Elvanus he is said to have consecrated a Bishop sent over to him two Reverend Prelates whose Names were Phaganus and Diruvianus commissionating them not only to instruct and Baptize the King and such others as should embrace the Christian Faith but also to order and establish all Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Kingdom But whereas the King desired that his Messengers might bring with them the Roman Laws according to which he would order the Civil State of his Kingdom the holy Bishop sent him word that those Laws were not necessary for the Constitution of a Christian Common-Weal since that in them many things were established that ought not to be observed by the Professors of Christianity These Messengers being arrived the King his Queen his Sister St. Emerita and his whole Family were washt in the Laver of Baptism whose good Example a great number of his People soon followed A Testimonial of this Conversion is yet remaining in the Library of Sir John Cotton being a Coin of this King bearing his Image his Name LVC and the Sacred Sign of the Cross the common Badge of Christianity This done these four holy Men employd themselves in Preaching the Gospel of CHRIST through all the Provinces of the Kingdom disputing daily with the Druids and by the help of the Kings Authority and Zeal abrogating their abominable Superstitions whose horrid Sacrifices of humane Blood had caused the Romans long since to prohibit them in Gaul and consecrating Priests and Bishops and designing for Episcopal Sees those Places where formerly the chief of the Druids whom by a Title borrowed from the Romans our Historians writing in Latin frequently term Flamines and Archiflamines had their Residence The Names of the Cities that were then in Britain compassed with Walls and fortified with Towers and Gates for each of which a Bishop was intended are as followeth 1. Cair Guintwick now Winwick in Lancashire 2. Cair Mincip Verolam near St. Albans 3. Cair Liqualid now Carlile 4. Cair Meguaid now Meivod in Montgomeryshire 5. Cair Colun now Colchester 6. Cair Ebranc now York 7. Cair Seiont afterwards Cair Custeint near Carnarvon 8. Cair Caradoc in the Borders of Shropshire 9. Cair Grant now Cambridge 10. Cair Maunguid now Manchester in Lancashire 11. Cair Lundein now London 12. Cair Guorthigirn in Radnorshire 13. Cair Ceint now Canterbury 14. Cair Guiragon now Worcester 15. Cair Peris now Portsmouth 16. Cair Daun now Doncaster in Yorkshire 17. Cair-Legio now Westchester 18. Cair Guricon now Warwick 19. Cair Segeint now Silcester in Hampshire 20. Cair-Leon on Usk in Monmouthshire now quite demolished 21. Cair Guent now Winchester 22. Cair Britto now Bristol 23. Cair Lerion now Leicester 24. Cair Draiton now Dragton in Shropshire 25. Cair Pentavelcoit now Ilchester in Somersetshire 26. Cair Urvac now Wroxcester in Shropshire 27. Cair Calemion now Camelet in Somersetshire 28. Cair Lindcoit now Lincoln Three of these were designed to be Metropolitical Cities the Title of Archbishops not being then in use viz. London York and Cairleon upon Vsk the first whereof was York being at that time not only a Colony of the Romans but the Place where the Emperours Palace and Courts of Judicature were kept The first Metropolitan of London was St. Theanus for whom the King built a Church in the place called Cornhil which was consecrated to St. Peter In the Year of CHRIST 186. the holy Prelates Phaganus and Diruvianus going to Rome obtained a Confirmation of all they had done in Britain from St. Eleutherius from whom at their Return hither they presented the King with an hallowed Crown These Holy men being now come back there were more Churches built particularly that of Westminster which which was even from its first Foundation deputed for the Burial of our Kings and that of Winchester to which the King granted great Immunities setling on it ample Revenues and placing therein Monks living according to the Rule delivered by St. Mark the Evangelist Nor was the Devotion of King Lucius content only to build Churches and Monasteries but he erected also Seminaries of Learning of which that of Bangor was most remarkable wherein at the coming of St. Augustin into England there were more than two thousand Monks Christian Religion being thus setled in Britain King Lucius out of his Zeal to propagate the Gospel is said to have relinquished his Crown and passed over into Bavaria and Rhaetia together with his Sister St. Emerita where being Crowned with Martyrdom he was buried at Curia or Chur after whose Death the Romans suffered no more British Kings within their Province St. Phaganus and Diruvianus travelling over the whole Island teaching and baptizing the Inhabitants visited the Isle of Avallonia where they built another Oratory dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul and having established there a Succession of twelve persons in memory of St. Joseph and his Companions are supposed there to have ended their Dayes Anno Domini 191. Persecution under Dioclesian The Christian Faith thus setled in Britain flourished here unmolested by any Persecution till the Year of our Lord 286. when Dioclesian being now in the third year of his Reign took for his Companion in the Empire Marcus Valerius Maximianus These two Emperors the former whereof assumed the Surname Jovius as the other did Herculius designing wholly to extirpate Christianity out of the World raised a more dismal Persecution against the Professors thereof than ever any of their Predecessors had done and this their supereminent Cruelty they extended so far that the Isle of Britain which in former persecuting Emperors times had been exempted from participating with the Sufferings of other Nations was now made a Scene of Blood and the very first Theatre whereon these bloody Emperours began to Act those Tragedies whereat Mankind stood amazed The first that suffered under their cruel Edicts was our glorious Protomartyr St. Albanus who being an Inhabitant of Verulam descended of an illustrious Roman Family and the Emperors Procurator in Britain courteously tho himself yet a Pagan entertained a certain reverend Christian Priest named Amphibalus then newly come from Rome into Britain by whom being converted to the true Faith he lent him at his departure his own Military Cassock woven with Gold that he might the better escape for which being accused before the Judge constituted for that purpose and owning himself
Spiritual Function be from GOD alone yet their Baronies Dignity and Interest in the State and even that external Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which they exercise and that legally in their own Names within his Majesties Dominions are from the Grace and Bounty of the Prince Defender of the Faith was as appears by a Charter of King Richard the IId to the University of Oxford anciently given to the Kings of England and therefore not so much conferred upon as confirmed unto King Henry the VIIIth by Pope Leo the Xth. for a Book written against Luther in Defence of some Points of the Roman Faith and since the ejection of that Religion continued in the Crown by Act of Parliament The Title of Grace since appropriated to Archbishops and Dukes was first given to the King about the Time of Henry the IVth as about the Time of Edward the IVth that of High and Mighty Prince since also given to Dukes To Henry the VIIIth was given first Highness since the Stile of all the Princes of the Blood then Majesty and now Most Excellent and Sacred Majesty The King of Great Britain in his publick Instruments and Letters uses as his Predecessors have ever done since the Time of King John Nos We in the Plural Number but before his Time Kings used the Singular Which Custom is still practiced in the Ends of Writs and Patents Teste meipso The Word Syr answering to the Latine Dominus and supposedly the same with Cyr an Abbreviation of the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which prefixt before the Christian Name is given only to Baronets Knights of the Bath and Knights Batchelors is the ordinary Appellation used in speaking to all persons of the better Rank from the King to the Gentleman tho in France the Word Syr or Syre is reserved only for the King as is with us Great Syr. Arms. Arms are Ensigns of Honor born in a Shield for Distinction of Families and descending as Hereditary to Posterity yet not generally fixt unless in the Kings of Europe in Great Britain or France till after the Time of the Holy War about four hundred years ago Our first Christian King and the first Christian King of the whole World Lucius bare Argent a Crosse Gules in the first Quarter a Crosse Patee Azure After the Desertion of this Island by the Romans King Vortigern bare Gules a Crosse Or. Aurelius Ambrosius bare Gules a Griffin Sergreant Or. Vter Pendragon bare Or two Dragons endorsed Vert crowned Gules King Arthur bare Vert a Crosse Argent on the first Quarter Our Lady with her Son in her Arms. Cadwalladar the last King of the Britains bare Azure a Crosse Patee on three parts and fitched on the fourth Or. The Soveraign Ensigns Armorial of the King of Great Britain since the Uniting of the two Crowns of England and Scotland are as followeth In the first place Azure three Flower-de-Lys Or for the Regal Arms of France quartered with the Imperial Ensigns of England which are Gules three Lyons Passant Guardant in pale Or in the second place Or within a double Tressure counter-flowered de Lys a Lyon Rampant Gules for the Royal Arms of Scotland In the third place Azure an Irish Harp Or stringed Argent for the Royal Ensigns of Ireland All within the Garter the chief Ensign of that most Honorable Order above the same an Helmet answerable to his Majesties Soveraign Jurisdiction upon the same a rich Mantle of Cloth of Gold doubled Ermin adorned with an Imperial Crown and surmounted for a Crest by a Lion Passant Gardant Crowned with the like Upon a Compartment placed underneath in the Table whereof is his Majesties Royal Motto Dieu mon Droet stand the Supporters being a Lion Rampant Gardant Or Crowned as the former and an Vnicorn Argent Gorged with a Crown having thereto a Chain affixt passing between his Fore-legs and reflext over his Back Or. The Arms of France are placed first because France is the greater Kingdom and also for that those Arms from their first Bearing have alwayes been the Ensign of a Kingdom whereas the Arms of England were originally of Dukedoms having been brought to England from Normandy and Aquitain by William the Conqueror and Henry the IId and probably likewise that the French might be thereby more easily induced to acknowledge the English Title The Motto Dieu mon Droit GOD and my Right first given by King Richard the Ist to intimate that he held not his Empire of any but of GOD alone was afterwards taken up by Edward the IIId when he first laid Claim to the Crown of France Dominions The Dominions of the King of Great Britain are at this day in possession the Islands of Great Britain and Ireland containing three Kingdoms of large Extent with all the other Isles lying in the British Sea being above four hundred in all great and small some whereof are very considerable together with all the adjacent Seas even to the Shores of the Neighboring Nations As a Mark whereof all Ships of Forreigners have anciently demanded leave to fish and pass in these Seas and do at this day lower their Topsails to all the Kings Ships of War And therefore Children born upon those Seas as it sometimes happens are esteemed natural born Subjects to the King of Great Britain and therefore need no Naturalization as do those that are born out of his Dominions He hath likewise in possession the Isles of Jersey Guernsey Alderney and Sark being Parcel of the ancient Dutchy of Normandy besides the profitable Plantations of New England Virginia Barbados Jamaica Maryland Bermudos Carolina New-York and other places in America with some in the East Indies and upon the Coast of Africa The Strength of the Monarch of Strength Great Britain since the Union of the two Kingdoms has never yet been fully tried the Parliaments of the two last Kings infected with the pestilential Principles of Presbyterianism and Democratism having upon all occasions proved refractory to their Designs and rather catching at all Opportunities of diminishing the Royal Prerogative and augmenting the falsly so called Liberty of the People being to speak truly only a Priviledge to Tyrannize more uncontrollably over their Fellow-Subjects than any wayes endeavoring to support and maintain the Grandeur and Glory of the King and Kingdom insomuch that there was invented a most unnatural Distinction of Subjects into Royalists and Patriots as if any man could shew himself a Lover of his Country by braving and opposing the Father of it whereas the Relation between King and Kingdom is so great that their Wel-being is reciprocal And tho for some time after his Majesties Return the Parliaments of all his three Kingdoms seemed to vy which of them should most readily comply with their Soveraigns Desires and Designs yet the Fanatical and Antimonarchical Faction who ever since his Majesties happy Restauration have been secretly blowing the Coals of Rebellion and by their sly and false
King or Queen who actually Reigns the Subjects of that Kingdom are bound by Law Duty and Allegiance to obey the next immediate and lawful Heir either Male or Female upon whom the Right and Administration of Government is immediately devolved And that no Difference in Religion nor no Law nor Act of Parliament made or to be made can alter or divert the Right of Succession and Lineal Descent of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir according to the Degrees aforesaid nor can stop or hinder them in the full free and actual Administration of the Government according to the Laws of the Kingdom but obliged also His Majesty for the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom with Advice and Consent of the said Estates of Parliament to declare That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects of that Kingdom by Writing Speaking or any other manner of way to endeavor the Alteration Suspension or Diversion of the said Right of Succession or the debarring the next lawful Successor from the immediate actual full and free Administration of the Government Nor is it to be doubted but that the Commons of England who now begin to grow sensible of those Precipices of Ruine whereinto they were ready to tumble through the Contrivances of of those malicious Incendiaries that by terrifying the People with panick Fears of Popery and Arbitrary Power endeavoured to kindle a Fire of Rebellion in this Nation will whenever it shall please His Majesty to call a Parliament shew themselves no less Zealous than the Scots have done to assist and defend according to their Oaths the Kings Rights and Priviledges the chiefest whereof upon which all the rest depend as on a Corner Stone is the unalterable Hereditariness of the Monarchy and thereby defeat the Designes of those cursed Achitophels who labor by involving us in Confusion to establish their beloved Democracy the very worst of Tyrannies CHAP. XIII Of the present Monarch of Great Britain His Name Surname Genealogy Birth Baptism Court Education Departure out of England Coming into Scotland Escape from Worcester Restauration Coronation and Marriage Name THe now-reigning Monarch of Great Britain is CHARLES the Second of that Name His Name of Baptism in Latine written Carolus in English CHARLES in the German Language Karle is contracted from Car-eal which is it self an Abbreviation of the old Teutonick Gar-edel and signifies All or wholly Noble Not improperly then was this Name given to this Prince whose Subjects may justly glory in the Enjoyment of that Happiness for which Salomon pronounces a Land blessed that their King is the Son of Nobles Surname Tho Surnames are neither used by Soveraign Princes nor necessary to them as they are to other inferior persons whose Surnames preserve the Memory of their Relations and Families yet as Bourbon and Austria which were but the Possessions of their Progenitors are now generally esteemed the Surnames of the Present French and Spanish Royal Familyes So Stuart or Steward the Abbreviation of the Saxon Word Stedeward signifying the same as Locumtenens in Latin and Lievtenant in French which was originally but the Name of Office to Walter Son of Fleance by the Daughter of Gruffyth ap Lhewelyn King of Northwales and Progenitor to Robert the IId King of Scotland from whom our present King is descended who was by King Malcolm Canmore created Grand Seneschal or High Steward of Scotland has by Prescription of Time and long Vulgar Error so far prevailed as to be accounted the Surname of the now-Royal Family of Great Britain and of many other Families descended from him Nor is this Name unfit for any King as being in his Kingdom the Steward Lieutenant or Vicegerent of Almighty GOD. Our Soveraign Lord the King Genealogy now reigning does for Royal Extraction and long Line of just Descent excell all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World being lineally and lawfully descended from and by Right of Primogeniture next Heir unto the British Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and Princes of this Island his Grandfather King James who by along Descent of Royal Ancestors was was derived from Malcolm Canmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and Sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons joyning the Saxon and Scotish Titles to the British and Norman already united in the Person and Posterity of Edward the IVth King of England He is from the first British Kings the hundred thirty ninth from the Scotish in a continued succession for almost two thousand years the hundred and ninth from the Saxon the forty sixth since the Norman Conquest the twenty sixth from the Uniting of the Royal Families of York and Lancaster the eighth and since the Union of England and Scotland the third sole Monarch He is the first that was born Prince or Heir apparent of Great Britain and hath in his possession larger Domininions than any of his Royal Ancestors His Father was Charles the Martyr and his Mother the Princess Henrietta Maria Daughter to Henry the Great Sister to Lewis the XIIIth and Aunt to the present Lewis the XIVth most Christian Kings a Lady who needeth no other Character than what is found in the seventh Chapter of that unimitable Book compiled by him that best knew her From these two Royal Stocks he hath in his Veins some of all the Royal Blood of Europe concentred This most Excellent Prince was born on the twenty ninth of May 1630. at the Royal Palace of St. James's Birth near Westminster over which there was the same day at noon by thousands seen a Star impending and soon after the Sun suffered an Eclipse which was by some even at that time regarded as a sad Omen that the Power of this Prince should for a while be eclipsed and that some Subject signified by the Star should have more than ordinary Splendor Baptism On the twenty seventh of June following he was baptized by Dr. William Laud then Bishop of London afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury who was in the year of our Lord 1644. by a pretended Ordinance of the rebellious long Parliament barbarously murthered for his Fidelity to his Soveraign His God-fathers were his two Uncles the most Christian King Lewis the XIIIth and Frederick Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine then called King of Bohemia represented by the Duke of Richmond and Marquess of Hamilton his Godmother being his Grandmother Maria de Medicis then Queen-Mother of France whose Substitute was the Dutchess of Richmond He had for his Governess Mary Countess of Dorset Wife to Edward Earl of Dorset In May 1638. he received the Order of Knighthood Court being immediately after made Knight of the Garter and installed at Windsor About which time he was by Order not Creation first called Prince of Wales having all the Revenews of that Principality with divers others Lands annexed and the Earldom of Chester granted unto