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who were and it was too near London not to be the common discourse; and the archbishop (who desired exceedingly that the king should be possessed as much of the hearts of the people as was possible, at least that they should have no just cause to complain) meeting with it, resolved to speak with the king of it; which he did, and received such an answer from him, that he thought his majesty rather not informed enough of the inconveniences and mischiefs of the thing, than positively resolved not to desist from it. Whereupon one day he took the lord Cottington aside, (being informed that he disliked it, and, according to his natural custom, spake with great warmth against it,) and told him, "he should do very well to give "the king good counsel, and to withdraw him from a resolution, in which his honour and his justice was so much called in question." Cottington answered him very gravely, "that the thing designed was very lawful, and he thought the king resolved very well, and since the place lay so conveniently for his winter exercise, and that "he should by it not be compelled to make so long 'journeys as he used to do, in that season of the year, for his sport, and that nobody ought to "dissuade him from it."

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The archbishop, instead of finding a concurrence from him, as he expected, seeing himself reproached upon the matter for his opinion, grew into much passion, telling him, "such men as he would "ruin the king, and make him lose the affections "of his subjects; that for his own part, as he had begun, so he would go on to dissuade the king "from proceeding in so ill a counsel, and that he

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hoped it would appear who had been his coun"sellor." Cottington, glad to see him so soon hot, and resolved to inflame him more, very calmly replied to him, "that he thought a man could not, "with a good conscience, hinder the king from

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pursuing his resolutions, and that it could not "but proceed from want of affection to his person, "and he was not sure that it might not be high "treason." The other, upon the wildness of his discourse, in great anger asked him, "Why? from "whence he had received that doctrine?" He said, with the same temper, They, who did not wish "the king's health, could not love him; and they, "who went about to hinder his taking recreation, "which preserved his health, might be thought, "for aught he knew, guilty of the highest crimes." Upon which the archbishop in great rage, and with many reproaches, left him, and either presently, or upon the next opportunity, told the king, "that he now knew who was his great counsellor "for making his park, and that he did not wonder "that men durst not represent any arguments to "the contrary, or let his majesty know how much " he suffered in it, when such principles in divinity " and law were laid down to terrify them;" and so recounted to him the conference he had with the lord Cottington, bitterly inveighing against him and his doctrine, mentioning him with all the sharp reproaches imaginable, and beseeching his majesty, "that his counsel might not prevail with him,' taking some pains to make his conclusions appear very false and ridiculous.

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The king said no more, but, My lord, you are "deceived; Cottington is too hard for you: upon

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my word, he hath not only dissuaded me more, "and given more reasons against this business, "than all the men in England have done, but hath really obstructed the work by not doing his duty, as I commanded him, for which I have been very "much displeased with him: you see how unjustly "your passion hath transported you." By which reprehension he found how much he had been abused, and resented it accordingly.

Whatsoever was the cause of it, this excellent man, who stood not upon the advantage ground before, from the time of his promotion to the archbishopric, or rather from that of his being commissioner of the treasury, exceedingly provoked, or underwent the envy, and reproach, and malice of men of all qualities and conditions; who agreed in nothing else: all which, though well enough known to him, were not enough considered by him, who believed, the government to be so firmly settled, that it could neither be shaken from within nor without, as most men did, and that less than a general confusion of law and gospel could not hurt him; which was true too: but he did not foresee how easily that confusion might be brought to pass, as it proved shortly to be. And with this general observation of the outward visible prosperity, and the inward reserved disposition of the people to murmur and unquietness, we conclude this first book.

THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK.

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

REBELLION, &c.

BOOK II.

It

T was towards the end of the year 1633, when the king returned from Scotland, having left it to the care of some of the bishops there to provide such a liturgy, and such a book of canons, as might best suit the nature and humour of the better sort of that people; to which the rest would easily submit and that, as fast as they made them ready, they should transmit them to the archbishop of Canterbury, to whose assistance the king joined the bishop of London, and doctor Wren, who, by that time, was become bishop of Norwich; a man of a severe, sour nature, but very learned, and particularly versed in the old liturgies of the Greek and Latin churches. And after his majesty should be this way certified of what was so sent, he would recommend and enjoin the practice and use of both to that his native kingdom. The bishops there had somewhat to do, before they went about the preparing the canons and the liturgy; what had passed at the king's being there in parliament had left

VOL. I.

bitter inclinations and unruly spirits in many of the most popular nobility; who watched only for an opportunity to inflame the people, and were well enough contented to see combustible matter every day gathered together to contribute to that fire.

So

The promoting so many bishops to be of the privy-council, and to sit in the courts of justice, seemed at first wonderfully to facilitate all that was in design, and to create an affection and reverence towards the church, at least an application to and dependence upon the greatest churchmen. that there seemed to be not only a good preparation made with the people, but a general expectation, and even a desire that they might have a liturgy, and more decency observed in the church. And this temper was believed to be the more universal, because neither from any of the nobility, nor of the clergy, who were thought most averse from it, there appeared any sign of contradiction, nor that license of language against it, as was natural to that nation; but an entire acquiescence in all the bishops thought fit to do; which was interpreted to proceed from a conversion in their judgment, at least to a submission to the authority: whereas in truth, it appeared afterwards to be from the observation they made from the temper and indiscretion of those bishops in the greatest authority, that they were like to have more advantages administered to them by their ill managery, than they could raise by any contrivance of their own.

It was full two years, or very near so much, before the bishops in Scotland had prepared any thing to offer to the king towards their intended reformation; and then they inverted the proper method,

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