he could; which he was so far from effecting, that, as it usually falls out, when passion and malice make accusation, by suggesting many particulars which the king knew to be untrue, or believed to be no faults, he rather confirmed his majesty's judgment of him, and prejudiced his own reputation. His death caused no grief in the archbishop; who was upon it made one of the commissioners of the treasury and revenue, which he had reason to be sorry for, because it engaged him in civil business and matters of state, in which he had little experience, and which he had hitherto avoided. But being obliged to it now by his trust, he entered upon it with his natural earnestness and warmth, making it his principal care to advance and improve the king's revenue by all the ways which were offered, and so hearkened to all informations and propositions of that kind; and having not had experience of that tribe of people who deal in that traffick, (a confident, senseless, and for the most part a naughty people,) he was sometimes misled by them to think better of some projects than they deserved but when he was so entirely devoted to what would be beneficial to the king, that all propositions and designs, which were for the profit (only or principally) of particular persons how great soever, were opposed and crossed, and very often totally suppressed and stifled in their birth, by his power and authority; which created him enemies enough in the court, and many of ability to do mischief, who knew well how to recompense discourtesies, which they always called injuries. And the revenue of too many of the court consisted principally in enclosures, and improvements of that nature, which he still opposed passionately, except they were founded upon law; and then, if it would bring profit to the king, how old and obsolete soever the law was, he thought he might justly advise the prosecution. And so he did a little too much countenance the coinmission for depopulation, which brought much charge and trouble upon the people, which was likewise cast upon his account. He had observed, and knew it must be so, that the principal officers of the revenue, who governed the affairs of money, had always access to the king, and spent more time with him in private than any of his servants or counsellors, and had thereby frequent opportunities to do good or ill offices to many men; of which he had had experience, when the earl of Portland was treasurer, and the lord Cottington chancellor of the exchequer; neither of them being his friends; and the latter still enjoying that place, and having his former access, and so continuing a joint commissioner of the treasury with him, and understanding that province much better, he still opposed, and commonly carried every thing against him: so that he was weary of the toil and vexation of that business; as all other men were, and still are of the delays which are in all dispatches, whilst that office is executed by commission. The treasurer's is the greatest office of benefit in the kingdom, and the chief in precedence next the archbishop's, and the great seal: so that the eyes of all men were at gaze who should have this great office; and the greatest of the nobility, who were in the chiefest employments, looked upon it as the prize of one of them; such offices commonly making way for more removes and preferments: when on a sudden the staff was put into the hands of the bishop of London, a man so unknown, that his name was scarce heard of in the kingdom, who had been within two years before but a private chaplain to the king, and the president of a poor college in Oxford. This inflamed more men than were angry before, and no doubt did not only sharpen the edge of envy and malice against the archbishop, (who was the known architect of this new fabric,) but most unjustly indisposed many towards the church itself; which they looked upon as the gulph ready to swallow all the great offices, there being others in view, of that robe, who were ambitious enough to expect the rest. In the mean time the archbishop himself was infinitely pleased with what was done, and unhappily believed he had provided a stronger support for the church; and never abated any thing of his severity and rigour towards men of all conditions, or in the sharpness of his language and expressions, which was so natural to him, that he could not debate any thing without some commotion, when the argument was not of moment, nor bear contradiction in debate, even in the council, where all men are equally free, with that patience and temper that was necessary; of which they who wished him not well took many advantages, and would therefore contradict him, that he might be transported with some indecent passion; which, upon a short recollection, he was always sorry for, and most readily and heartily would make acknowledgment. No man so willingly made unkind use of all those occasions, as the lord Cottington, who being a master of temper, and of the most profound dissimulation, knew too well how to lead him into a mistake, and then drive him into choler, and then expose him upon the matter, and the manner, to the judgment of the company; and he chose to do this most when the king was present; and then he would dine with him the next day. The king, who was excessively affected to hunting and the sports of the field, had a great desire to make a great park for red as well as fallow deer, between Richmond and Hampton court, where he had large wastes of his own, and great parcels of wood, which made it very fit for the use he designed it to: but as some parishes had common in those wastes, so many gentlemen and farmers had good houses and good farms intermingled with those wastes of their own inheritance, or for their lives, or years; and without taking in of them into the park, it would not be of the largeness or for the use proposed. His majesty desired to purchase those lands, and was very willing to buy them upon higher terms than the people could sell them at to any body else, if they had occasion to part with them; and thought it no unreasonable thing, upon those terms, to expect from his subjects; and so he employed his own surveyor, and other of his officers, to treat with the owners, many whereof were his own tenants, whose terms would at last expire. The major part of the people were in a short time prevailed with, but many very obstinately refused; and a gentleman, who had the best estate, with a convenient house and gardens, would by no means part with it; and the king being as earnest to compass it, it made a great noise, as if the king would take away men's estates at his own pleasure. The bishop of London, who was treasurer, and the lord Cottington, chancellor of the exchequer, were, from the first entering upon it, very averse from the design, not only for the murmur of the people, but because the purchase of the land, and the making a brick-wall about so large a parcel of ground, (for it is not less than ten or twelve miles about,) would cost a greater sum of money than they could easily provide, or than they thought ought to be sacrificed to such an occasion; and the lord Cottington (who was more solicited by the country people, and heard most of their murmurs) took the business most to heart, and endeavoured by all the ways he could, and by frequent importunities, to divert his majesty from pursuing it, and put all delays he could well do in the bargains which were to be made; till the king grew very angry with him, and told him, "he was resolved "to go through with it, and had already caused "brick to be burned, and much of the wall to be "built upon his own land;" upon which Cottington thought fit to acquiesce. The building the wall before people consented to part with their land, or their common, looked to them as if by degrees they should be shut out from both, and increased the murmur and noise of the people who were not concerned, as well as of them 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 de"signed 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." 66 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 "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 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. The king said no more, but, "My lord, you are "deceived; Cottington is too hard for you: upon 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 concludo this first book. END OF THE FIRST BOOK. G THE HISTORY OF THE REBELLION, &c. BOOK II. IT 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 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. 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 church men. So 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, and first presented a body of canons to precede the liturgy, which was not yet ready, they choosing to finish the shorter work first. The king referred the consideration of the canons, as he had before resolved to do, to the archbishop, and the other two bishops formerly named, the bishop of London, and the bishop of Norwich ; who, after their perusal of them, and some alterations made with the consent of those bishops who brought them from Scotland, returned them to the king; and his majesty, impatient to see the good work entered upon without any other ceremony, (after having given his royal approbation,) issued out his proclamation for the due observation of them within his kingdom of Scotland. It was a fatal inadvertency, that neither before nor after these canons were sent to the king they were never seen by the assembly, or any convocation of the clergy, which was so strictly obliged to the observation of them; nor so much as communicated to the lords of the council of that kingdom; it being almost impossible that any new discipline could be introduced into the church, which would not much concern the government of the state, and even trench upon or refer to the municipal laws of the kingdom. And, in this consideration, the archbishop of Canterbury had always declared to the bishops of Scotland, "that it was "their part to be sure, that nothing they should 66 propose to the king in the business of the church, "should be contrary to the laws of the land, "which he could not be thought to understand "and that they should never put any thing in ; execution, without the consent and approbation "of the privy-council." But it was the unhappy craft of those bishops to get it believed by the king, that the work would be grateful to the most considerable of the nobility, the clergy, and the people, (which they could hardly believe,) in order to the obtaining his majesty's approbation and authority for the execution of that, which they did really believe would not find opposition from the nobility, clergy, or people, against his majesty's express power and will, which without doubt was then in great veneration in that kingdom; and so they did not in truth dare to submit those canons to any other examination, than what the king should direct in England. It was, in the next place, as strange, that those | policy, than of religion; thwarted their laws and canons should be published before the liturgy was customs, which had been observed by them; prepared, (which was not ready in a year after, or lessened, if not took away the credit of churchthereabouts,) when three or four of the canons men; and prohibited them from that liberty of were principally for the observation and punctual commerce in civil affairs, which the laws permitted compliance with the liturgy; which all the clergy to them; and reflected upon the interests of those were to be sworn to submit to, and to pay all obe- who had, or might have, a right to inherit from dience to what was enjoined by it, before they knew clergymen. "That none should receive the sawhat it contained. Whereas, if the liturgy had "crament but upon their knees; that the clergy been first published with all due circumstances, it "should have no private meetings for expoundis possible that it might have found a better recep- ing scripture, or for consulting upon matters tion, and the canons less examined. "ecclesiastical; that no man should cover his "head in the time of divine service; and that no clergyman should conceive prayers ex tem"pore, but be bound to pray only by the form "prescribed in the liturgy," (which, by the way, was not seen nor framed,)" and that no man should "teach a public school, or in a private house, with"out a license first obtained from the archbishop "of the province, or the bishop of the diocese." The Scotch nation, how capable soever it was of being led by some great men, and misled by the clergy, would have been corrupted by neither into a barefaced rebellion against their king, whose person they loved, and reverenced his government; nor could they have been wrought upon towards the lessening the one, or the other, by any other suggestions or infusions, than such as should make them jealous or apprehensive of a design to introduce popery; their whole religion consisting in an entire detestation of popery, in believing the pope to be Antichrist, and hating perfectly the persons of all papists; and I doubt all others, who did not hate them. 66 66 All these were new, and things with which they had not been acquainted; and though they were all to be commended to a regular and orderly people, piously disposed, yet it was too strong meat for infants in discipline, and too much nourishment to be administered at once to weak and The canons now published, besides (as hath been queasy stomachs, too much inclined to nauseate touched before) that they had passed no approba- what was most wholesome. But then, to apply tion of the clergy, or been communicated to the the old terms of the church, to mention "the council, appeared to be so many new laws imposed quatuor tempora, and restrain all ordinations to upon the whole kingdom by the king's sole au- "those four seasons of the year; to enjoin a font thority, and contrived by a few private men, of "to be prepared in every church for baptism, and whom they had no good opinion, and who were a decent table for the communion; and to direct strangers to the nation; so that it was no other "and appoint the places where both font and than a subjection to England, by receiving laws "table should stand, and decent ornaments for from thence, of which they were most jealous, and "either; to restrain any excommunication from which they most passionately abhorred. Then "being pronounced, or absolution from being given, they were so far from being confined to the church," without the approbation of the bishop; to menand the matters of religion, that they believed there was no part of their civil government uninvaded by them, and no persons of what quality soever unconcerned, and, as they thought, unhurt in them. And there were some things in some particular canons, how rational 'soever in themselves, and how distant soever in the words and expressions from inclining to popery, which yet gave too much advantage to those who maliciously watched the occasion to persuade weak men, that it was an approach and introduction to that religion, the very imagination whereof intoxicated all men, and deprived them of all faculties to examine and judge. 66 The first canon defined and determined such an unlimited "power and prerogative to be in the "king, according to the pattern" (in express terms)" of the kings of Israel, and such a full supremacy in all causes ecclesiastical, as hath "never been pretended to by their former kings, or submitted to by the clergy and laity of that "nation;" and which made impression upon men of all tempers, humours, and inclinations. "That "no ecclesiastical person should become surety, "or bound for any man; that national or general "assemblies should be called only by the king's "authority; that all bishops, and other eccle"siastical persons, who die without children, "should be obliged to give a good part of their "estates to the church, and, though they should have children, yet to leave somewhat to the "church, and for advancement of learning;" which seemed rather to be matter of state, and "tion any practice of confession," (which they looked upon as the strongest and most inseparable limb of Antichrist,) and to enjoin, "that no pres 66 byter should reveal any thing he should receive "in confession, except in such cases, where, by "the law of the land, his own life should be for"feited;" were all such matters of innovation, and in their nature so suspicious, that they thought they had reason to be jealous of the worst that could follow; and the last canon of all provided, "that no person should be received in holy orders, or suffered to preach or administer the sacra"ments, without first subscribing to these canons. It was now easy for them who had those inclinations, to suggest to men of all conditions, that here was an entire new model of government in church and state; the king might do what he would upon them all, and the church was nothing but what the bishops would have it be which they every day infused into the minds of the people, with all the art and artifices which administer jealousies of all kinds to those who were liable to be disquieted with them: yet they would not suffer (which shewed wonderful power and wonderful dexterity) any disorder to break out upon all this occasion, but all was quiet, except spreading of libels against the bishops, and propagating that spirit as much as they could, by their correspondence in England; where they found too many every day transported by the same infusions, in expectation that these seeds of jealousy from the canons would grow apace, and produce a proper reception for the liturgy. It was about the month of July, in the year 1637, that the liturgy (after it had been sent out of Scotland, and perused by the three bishops in England, and then approved and confirmed by the king) was published, and appointed to be read in all the churches. And in this particular there was the same affected and premeditated omission, as had been in the preparation and publication of the canons ; the clergy not at all consulted in it, and, which was more strange, not all the bishops acquainted with it; which was less censured afterwards, when some of them renounced their function, and became ordinary presbyters, as soon as they saw the current of the time. The privycouncil had no other notice of it, than all the kingdom had, the Sunday before, when it was declared, "that the next Sunday the liturgy should "be read;" by which they were the less concerned to foresee or prevent any obstructions which might happen. The proclamation had appointed it to be read the Easter before; but the earl of Traquaire, high treasurer of Scotland, (who was the only counsellor or layman relied upon by the archbishop of Canterbury in that business,) persuaded the king to defer it till July, that some good preparation might be made for the more cheerful reception of it. And as this pause gave the discontented party more heart, and more time for their seditious negociations, so the ill consequences of it, or the actions which were subsequent to it, made him suspected to be privy to all the conspiracy, and in truth to be an enemy to the church; though, in truth, there neither appeared then, nor in all the very unfortunate part of his life afterwards, any just ground for that accusation and suspicion: but as he was exceedingly obliged to the archbishop, so he was a man of great parts, and well affected to the work in hand in his own judgment; and if he had been as much depended upon, to have advised the bishops in the prosecution and for the conduct of it, as he was to assist them in the carrying on whatsoever they proposed, it is very probable, that either so much would not have been undertaken together, or that it would have succeeded better; for he was without doubt not inferior to any of that nation in wisdom and dexterity. And though he was often provoked, by the insolence and petulance of some of the bishops, to a dislike of their overmuch fervour, and too little discretion, his integrity to the king was without blemish, and his affection to the church so notorious, that he never deserted it, till both it and he were overrun, and trod under foot; and they who were the most notorious persecutors of it never left persecuting him to the death. Nor was any thing done which he had proposed, for the better adjusting things in that time of that suspension, but every thing left in the same state of unconcernedness as it had been before; not so much as the council being better informed of it; as if they had been sure that all men would have submitted to it for conscience sake. On the Sunday morning appointed for the work, the chancellor of Scotland and others of the council being present in the cathedral church, the dean began to read the liturgy, which he had no sooner entered upon, but a noise and clamour was raised throughout the church, that no voice could be heard distinctly, and then a shower of stones, and sticks, and cudgels were thrown at the dean's head. The bishop went up into the pulpit, and from thence put them in mind of the sacredness of the place, of their duty to God and the king: but he found no more reverence, nor was the clamour or disorder less than before. The chancellor, from his seat, commanded the provost and magistrates of the city to descend from the gallery in which they sat, and by their authority to suppress the riot; which at last with great difficulty they did, by driving the rudest of those who made the disturbance out of the church, and shutting the doors, which gave the dean occasion to proceed in the reading of the liturgy, which was not at all attended or hearkened to by those who remained within the church; and if it had, they who were turned out continued their barbarous noise, broke the windows, and endeavoured to break down the doors; so that it was not possible for any to follow their devotions. When all was done that at that time could be done there, and the council and magistrates went out of the church to their houses, the rabble followed the bishops with all the opprobrious language they could invent, of bringing in superstition and popery into the kingdom, and making the people slaves; and were not content to use their tongues, but employed their hands too in throwing dirt and stones at them; and treated the bishop of Edinburgh, whom they looked upon as most active that day, so rudely, that with difficulty he got into a house, after they had torn his habit, and was from thence removed to his own, with great hazard of his life. As this was the reception it had in the cathedral, so it fared not better in the other churches of the city, but was entertained with the same hollowing and outcries, and threatening the men, whose office it was to read it, with the same bitter execrations against bishops and popery. Hitherto no person of condition or name appeared, or seemed to countenance this seditious confusion; it was the rabble, of which nobody was named, and, which is more strange, not one apprehended: and it seems the bishops thought it not of moment enough to desire or require any help or protection from the council; but without conferring with them, or applying themselves to them, they dispatched away an express to the king, with a full and particular information of all that had passed, and a desire that he would take that course he thought best for the carrying on his service. Until this advertisement arrived from Scotland, there were very few in England who had heard of any disorders there, or of any thing done there, which might produce any. The king himself had been always so jealous of the privileges of that his native kingdom, (as hath been touched before,) and that it might not be dishonoured by a suspicion of having any dependence upon England, that he never suffered any thing relating to that to be debated, or so much as communicated to his privy-council in this, (though many of that nation were, without distinction, counsellors of England,) but handled all those affairs himself with two or three Scotsmen, who always attended in the court for the business of that kingdom, which was upon the matter still dispatched by the sole advice and direction of the marquis of Hamilton. And the truth is, there was so little curiosity |