receiving the communion. Upon a king's letter the house resolved to receive at St. Margaret's Church, Dr. Usher to preach; but on the dean sending a message that there could be no preaching there without the king's licence, and that they were the king's chaplains, the receiving was put off "till Sunday come sevennight," and an application to be made to the king for Dr. Usher to preach. One member objected to the place, as "not so fitted now for receiving the communion, in respect of these crosses." 209 A bill for the "punishment of divers abuses on the sabbath" was sent up to and passed the lords.210 A bill for the limitation of suits in the temporal and ecclesiastical courts was ordered to be drawn,2 211 and a motion that all the lawyers in the house should meet and consider how the laws concerning the clergy might be reduced into one or more bills was agreed to.212 Bills touching benefices appropriate, against pluralities and non-residency, against scandalous ministers, and concerning fees taken in ecclesiastical courts, were also brought in.2 Objection was taken to clergymen being justices of the peace; 214 and Coke in a speech affirmed that the laws against Jesuits were both just and merciful, that the pope had sent to Queen Elizabeth "promising 1. se rescissurum the divorce of her mother, 2. confirma 213 209 Journ. H. of C. pp. 508, 515, 516; Birch, 11. pp. 220, 227; St. Pap. Dom. James I. CXIX. No. 79; ante, n. 178, 179. 210 Journ. H. of C. pp. 515, 521, 523, 524, 533, 538, 628, 630; Journ. H. of L. pp. 38, 44, 138, 139. The bill caused much friction and debate in the commons, one member, a Mr. Sheppard, being turned out of the house by reason of his speech being a little too free. Parl. Hist. I. pp. 1190, 1191; Birch, II. p. 229. 211 Journ. H. of C. pp. 519, 578. The cases of a marriage dissolved after eighteen years' cohabitation, causa praecontractus, and of a suit for a legacy which had been paid, but the witnesses were dead, were given by Coke. One member spoke feelingly of a chancery suit that had lasted him twenty-four years, where, in Edward III.'s time, there were not 400 causes yearly, but now 35,000. Some ten bills were drafted, and Coke took occasion to magnify the Common Law Jurisdiction, pointing out that the king's bench was above the Latin chancery, writs of error being granted and chancery judgments reversed; the king's bench being the elder brother, Coram Rege; chancery, the younger, Coram Rege in Cancellaria. “Truth,” said Coke, "is the best oratory, and plain English honesty the best policy." Id. pp, 573, 574, 578, 582. 212 Id. p. 519. 213 The first, second, and fourth were read once, and the third twice. Journ. H. of C. pp. 582, 592, 643, 595, 640, 655, 626. 214 Id. pp. 590, 599. turum the book of common prayer, which he found good and godly, 3. permissurum the use of the sacrament in both kinds; but all this with a condition that” he should "be acknowledged supreme head :” that there were no recusants till the 12 Eliz.; that Parry had been set on by the Jesuits and the pope himself to kill the queen, whilst the Spanish faction went about "by Lopuz" to poison her, and Creswel set Squyre on to poison her saddle.215 Complaint was made of Dr. Field, the bishop of Llandaff,216 and a petition and remonstrance drawn up for presentation to the king by the commons. To it the king sent, on December 4th, a reply of "sharp praise," upon which the commons framed a second petition and declaration, the king answering it on the 11th, and sending further messages on the 16th and 17th, for which the commons returned their hearty thanks. A formal protestation concerning the privileges of the house was entered on the journals, but at once erased by the king himself in council, who on the 18th adjourned, and, on February 8th ensuing, dissolved, the parliament.217 39. Upon the fall of Bacon, the great seal was put into commission until July 10th, when the Bishop of Lincoln was made lord keeper.218 About this time, too, the Bishop of 215 Journ. H. of C. pp. 648, 310. See Fleury, XXXVI. pp. 130, 131, 135, 178, 547. 216 The offence was alleged to have been committed before Dr. Field's appointment to the bishopric, and so it was finally decided, on motion in the lords, that the matter should be referred to the primate, and for Dr. Field to bear his fault as Dr. Field, and not as bishop, and that the primate should admonish him in the convocation house before the bishops and the clergy there. Journ. H. of C. pp. 621, 632; Journ. H. of L. III. pp. 55, 128, 143, 144, 153; Birch, II. pp. 244, 249, 253, 254. 217 Journ. H. of C. pp. 655, 658, 661, 663, 666; Parl. Hist. 1. pp. 1323— 1366; Hallam, C. H. 1. p. 368; Birch, 11. pp. 279–285; Rushworth, I. pp. 40-55. Coke and Sir R. Philips were sent to the Tower, Coke's chambers in London and the Temple being sealed up and his papers seized. Selden, Pym, and Mallery, three other "ill-tempered spirits," were locked up elsewhere, whilst a still more severe punishment was inflicted on four more,-they were sent away as commissioners to Ireland. 218 Chron. Jur. p. 187; Fuller, x. p. 89; Rushw. p. 36; Hacket, pp. 52— 62, 70-78; St. Pap. Dom. James I. CXXIII. Nos. 18, 19. By the 5 Eliz. c. 18, the offices of lord chancellor and lord keeper were declared to be one. Parl. and Counc. p. 215, n. b. The case of Bishop Williams was the last exception to the rule of lay chancellors. He still held his deanery, and a parsonage and prebendal stall in commendam. Birch, II. p. 273; St. Pap. Dom. James I. CXXII. No. 75. Bangor was summoned and examined.219 On the 28th, the primate, on going into Hampshire to consecrate a chapel for the Lord Zouch, accidentally killed a man, whereupon an order went to the attorney-general to draw up a commission of delegates.220 On November 18th, Laud was consecrated bishop of St. Davids.221 219 He had fallen out with the king over the matter of the Sabbath, and had to appear before the primate, four other bishops, and the Dean of the Arches; and there was some talk of his degradation. Birch, II. p. 265. 220 St. Pap. Dom. James I. cxXII. No. 46; Birch, II. pp. 271, 273, 275; Collier, VII. p. 421; Rushw, I. p. 61; Hacket, pp. 65—69; Fuller, x. p. 87; Ellis, IV. p. 103, 3rd ser. The attorney-general was directed to first search the rolls for any commission issued in Grindal's time, but reported none could be found, but that Aubrey and Clark were appointed delegates to perform the archbishop's On this he was ordered to draw up a comoffices, execute all instruments, etc. mission, delegating all the jurisdiction of the archbishop to certain bishops named by the king. St. Pap. Dom. James I. cxxII. No. 103. On October 3rd, the lord keeper and five other bishops, with three judges and a civilian, were ordered to examine into the case, their opinion being given on November 10th following. Collier, VII. pp. 421--423. Upon this the king, by another commission dated December 19th, said to be "ex auctoritate nostra regia suprema et ecclesiastica qua fungimur," empowers six bishops to cure and dispense with any irregularity by penalty, and to restore the primate to the full exercise of his ecclesiastical functions. Wilk. Conc. IV. p. 462; Collier, VII. p. 424; IX. p. 376; Lingard, VII. p. 115; Hacket, pp. 65-70; Cyp. Ang. p. 80; St. Pap. Dom. James I. CXXIII. Nos. 5, 18; Card. D. A. 11. p. 135. 221 Laud owed this preferment to the lord keeper, as the king first refused, it is said, to appoint him, remarking, "You have pleaded the man a good protestant, and I believe it; neither did that stick in my breast when I stopped his promotion. But was there not a certain lady that forsook her husband and married a lord that was her paramour? Who knit the knot? Shall I make a man a prelate, one of the angels of my church, who hath a flagrant crime upon him?" On Williams' further pleading, the king added, "The plain truth is, I keep Laud back from all place of rule and authority because I find he hath a restless spirit, and cannot see when matters are well, but loves to toss and change, and to bring things to a pitch of reformation floating in his own brain, which may endanger the stedfastness of that which is in good pass," etc. Finally, on the lord keeper pressing his petition, the king said, "Then take him to you, but on my soul you will repent it." It could hardly, howLingard throws doubts upon Bishop Hacket's statement. ever, have been an invention, and is probably more correct than the charges made 40. A.D. 1622. On January 19th, the king wrote to the primate and the lord keeper, requiring a clergy subsidy.222 A Mr. Knight having in a sermon at Oxford, in April, been so hardy as to hold that subjects, when harassed on the score of religion by their prince, might take up arms in self-defence, Laud, upon the information of the vice-chancellor, brought the matter before the council, when the preacher was committed, and the book (by Paræus) ordered to be burnt.223 In July, Laud visited his diocese.224 On August 12th, the primate forwarded a king's letter, containing certain directions concerning preachers,225 ordering 222 The king made private appeals, and sent circular letters to the judges, sheriffs, mayors, and bailiffs of the kingdom. Wilk. Conc. IV. p. 464; Card. D. A. II. p. 141; Rushw. 1. pp. 60, 61; Birch, 11. pp. 285, 286, 288, 289, 291, 223. 223 Hacket, p. 88; Card. D. A. II. p. 146, note; Birch, II. pp. 308, 317; Collier, VII. pp. 434-438; St. Pap. Dom. James I. cxxx. No. 106. The matter was referred, by the king, to the primate and twelve bishops, who, on May 22nd, reported their opinion on the doctrines to the privy council. 224 His visitation articles for parish churches, in 1622 and 1625, require a convenient and decent communion table to be "placed in convenient sort within the chancel," and that the "minister duly observe the orders, rites, and ceremonies prescribed in the book of common prayer . . . in such manner and form, as in the said book of common prayer he is enjoined without any omission or addition," and to "wear a surplice according to the canons." Laud plainly knew nothing of any maximum or minimum. In his articles for London, in 1628, he again insists on the observance of all the rites and ceremonies prescribed in the book of common prayer, but names the surplice and hood only, whilst he enquires whether the table is placed at communion time "in such convenient sort within the chancel or church, as that the minister may be best heard in his prayer and administration, and that the greater number may communicate." He also asks "whether there be any in your parish who are known or suspected to conceal or keep hid in their houses any mass books, portesses, breviaries, or other books of popery or superstition; or any chalices, copes, vestments, albs, or other ornaments of superstition uncancelled or undefaced, which is to be conjectured they keep for a day, as they call it." This enquiry was repeated in 1631, and again in his visitation articles of 1637, for the peculiars of Canterbury. If copes, vestments, and albs were then lawfully in use, Laud's queries are absurd. Laud, of all men, would not be likely to order the destruction of any such, if really lawful, ornaments, nor be much disposed for a mere minimum of observance. He appears, in his articles, to have enforced what he took to be law. Rit. Com. Rep. 11. pp. 488, 547; Works, v. pp. 378, 381, 389, 399, 405, 414, 439, 447; ante, p. 331, n. 54. 225 The king also wrote to the Archbishop of York. Card. D. A. 11. pp. 146 1. That no preacher under the degree of a bishop should set out in his discourse anything not "comprehended and warranted in essence, substance, effect, or natural inference within some one of the articles of religion set forth in 1562, or in some of the homilies." 2. No sermon or collation to be in the afternoon, but upon some part of the catechism, or text out of the creed, ten commandments or the Lord's Prayer (funeral sermons excepted), and the catechism to be expounded and the children examined in it. 3. Predestination, election, reprobation, and other the doctrines set out, not to be preached in any popular auditory. 4. No one to set out or limit by way of positive doctrine the power, prerogative, jurisdiction, authority, or duty of princes, or meddle with such matters of state other than as they are instructed in the homily of obedience and the rest of the homilies and articles set forth by public authority. 5. No preacher to rail at either papists or puritans. 6. Bishops to be wary and choice in licensing preachers; grants to chancellors, etc. to pass licences to be revoked; and lecturers to be licensed by the Court of Faculties, upon the recommendation of the bishop and the fiat of the primate, confirmed under the great seal. 41. A.D. 1623. Upon the prince's visit to Spain, Maw and Wren, his chaplains, received, on March 10th, instructions from the king both as to their conduct and as to "the outward forms of worship"; 226 but the public alarm and discontent at the supposed intended toleration of Romanism found vent -151; Rushw. I. p. 64; Hacket, pp. 89, 90; Neal, 1. p. 481; Fuller, x. pp. 108, 109; Wilk. Conc. IV. pp. 465, 466; Cyp. Ang. p. 93. On September 4th, another letter from Abbot explains the directions (Wilk. Conc. IV. p. 466; Card. D. A. 11. p. 151); but Collier gives the date as September 3rd, and makes the lord keeper the writer; but the primate sent the king's letter and orders on that date to the Bishop of Lincoln, with directions to attend to it. Collier, VII. p. 431 ; St. Pap. Dom. James I. cxxxII. Nos. 85, 86, 93. 226 They were to avoid meeting the host in the streets, but if met, they were to do " as they did there," so as to give no offence. They were to fit up the room "appointed for prayer" with "an altar, fonts, palls, linen coverings, demicarpet, four surplices, candlesticks, tapers, chalices, patens, a fine towel for the prince, other towels for the household, a traverse of waters for the communion, a basin and flagons, two copes." The mixed chalice and smooth wafers were also ordered. Cyp. Ang. p. 100; Ellis, III. p. 132 (1st ser.); Collier, vII. p. 440. |