66 CHARLES Cf the Agreement of the Church of England and Ireland I. in the Profession of the same Faith. Church of "For the manifestation of our agreement with the Church They receive the Thirtyof England, in the confession of the same Christian faith, and nine Artidoctrine of the sacraments, we do receive and approve the cles of the Book of Articles of religion, agreed upon by the archbishops England. and bishops, and the whole clergy, in whole convocation, holden at London, A.D. 1562, for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion. And therefore, if any hereafter shall affirm, that any of those Articles are in any part superstitious and erroneous, or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto, let him be excommunicated, and not absolved before he makes a public revocation of his error." Bibl. Reg. sec. 3. num. 13. Hist. Reign of It has been affirmed, that the Irish Articles above-mentioned were formally nulled by this convocation. But, in disproof of this assertion, archbishop Usher's testimony is cited by a considerable historian. However, this entire receiving the Nine- L'Estrange, and-Thirty Articles, without the least reserve, implies a virtual is of the abrogating their own: this, I say, is the necessary consequence, K. Charles. as far as there is any inconsistency between the English and Irish Articles: for this canon being the last act of the Irish Bishop Church, it must, like a last will, stand in force against all prior Life, by declarations of a contrary import. Usher's Parr, p. 42. To go on to the parliament at Dublin: I shall begin with the act for confirming eight entire subsidies, granted by the prelates and clergy. The preamble of this grant, addressed to the king, sets forth the miserable condition of the Church of Ireland at king James's accession to the throne. And here, after having represented the calamity of the clergy, much in the same manner already mentioned in their petition, they proceed to this acknowledgment: "That now,"-to use their own Their acwords," by the piety and bounty of your blessed father, and ment to the by the gracious influence of your sacred majesty, being new king. enlivened, and beginning to lift up our heads out of darkness and obscurity, do freely acknowledge, to your immortal glory, before God and the whole Christian world, that as no Church under heaven did ever stand more in need, so none did ever find more royal and munificent patrons and protectors, than knowledg LAUD, the poor Church of Ireland. You have not only made restituAbp. Cant. tion of that which the iniquity of former ages had bereft us of, but also, as though you intended to expiate their faults, enriched us with new and princely endowments: all which great favours do yet become more sweet unto us whilst we entertain them as pledges of your future unexhausted goodness. And if we do not seriously endeavour, throughout our whole lives, to make unfeigned expressions of true loyalty and thankfulness to your sacred majesty, we deserve to be condemned by men, and punished by God, as monsters of ingratitude. To which infinite obligations, and many others, we may add your majesty's inestimable goodness in providing for us our present deputy, Irish Acts. Thomas, viscount Wentworth, a governor so just, careful, pro10 Charles 1. vident, and propitious to the Church." cap. 23. Irish Acts relating to the Church. 760*. Id. cap. 2. This parliament, at their next session, began, after prorogation, on the 24th of March, passed an act against cursing and swearing. It is much the same with that made in England in the twenty-first year of king James, cap. 20. Another proviId. cap. 1. sion with reference to religion, in the Irish parliament, is " An Act to enable the restitution of Impropriations and Tithes, and other rights ecclesiastical, to the Clergy, with a restraint of alienating the same." The next act, which is the last I shall mention, provides " for the preservation of the inheritance, rights, and profits, belonging to the Church and persons ecclesiastical." By this statute, "all feoffiments, gifts, grants, leases, alienations, &c., made or done after the 1st day of June next ensuing, by any archbishops, bishops, deans and chapters, archdeacons, prebendaries, parsons, vicars, masters and governors and fellows of colleges, and masters of hospitals, of any manors, lands, tenements, &c., being parcel of the possession of any archbishop, bishop, &c., shall be utterly void and of none effect." This statute has some provisos, which are too long to mention. Id. cap. 3. The London clergy's petition for the To return to England: this year the city clergy petitioned the king for the benefit of the law, and the due payment of their tithes : "Humbly shewing, that the benefices in London were a hundred since years very great; that the decree now in force due payment provides two shillings and ninepence to be paid upon every of their tithes. The pagination of four pages of the folio cdition is here irregular: but the irregularity is retained for convenience of reference. I. 8. cap. 12. pound rent, without fraud; that, notwithstanding the said CHARLES decree, (the variation of times considered,) they are now very poor and mean, many of them not worth 40/. per annum, the See 37 Hen. most not 1007., only one-Christ-church, a city impropriation -worth 350.; that the petitioners have not independent maintenance, and for want thereof are daily thrust upon dangerous and great inconveniences; that this is because the petitioners have no means assigned in the said decree for the discovering of the true value of their said rents by the oath of the parties; and for that many London landlords (to the defeating the petitioners and endangering their own souls) have and daily do contrive double leases, or make provisos, wherein they call some small part of the true rent by the name of rent, and all the rest (which yet is quarterly paid) by the name of fine, income, or the like, which practice in the year 1620 was signified to be unjust and sacrilegious, under the hands of the reverend bishops and heads of houses of both universities; and, lastly, for that the lord mayor for the time being is our ordinary judge, and the petitioners generally want both ability and leisure to prosecute an appeal from him to the right honourable the lord keeper, or otherwise to wage law with rich and powerful citizens. "May it therefore please the great patron of the Church, your royal majesty, to take into your princely consideration. these pressures and grievances of your poor clergy of London, with the causes of the same; and to take such course for redress thereof as to your majesty's great wisdom and cleshall seem meet. mency "And your petitioners shall," &c. Rushworth's vol. 2. p. 269. referred to council, and This petition was graciously received, and several of the The matter privy council were appointed to consider it. About five months the privyafter, they came to a hearing, and the matter was referred by sinks there. the parties to the king and council. But, in short, the busi- Idem. ness sunk with the referees: prudential considerations, as they are called, struck the cause dead; and the board, it is probable, was not willing to venture disobliging the city with a decision. This year, the archbishop of Canterbury began his metropolitical visitation in the diocese of Lincoln. And, in the first place, the bishop and the six archdeacons were suspended the exercise of their jurisdiction, during the time of this visitation. LAUD, Bishop Williams at first refused to acknowledge this archiepisAbp. Cant. copal privilege, and pretended a papal exemption; but the business being brought before the council-board, and the records of either side examined, this plea was found insufficient. This obstruction being got over, Brent, the vicar-general, went on with the visitation, and, pursuant to his articles, enjoined the churchwardens to remove the communion-table to the east end of the chancel, and enclose it with a decent rail. He gave them further in charge, that they were to return the names of the lecturers in their respective parishes; and whether those lecturers and the rest of the preaching clergy observed his majesty's instructions, published in the year 1629. Contests about communion table. The bringing the communion-table into the chancel, which placing the situation had been long discontinued in several places, occasioned a warm contest, both in this diocese and elsewhere. As to bishop Williams, he seems formerly to have been entirely in Laud's sentiment: for, in his own chapel at Bugden, the communion-table was placed at the east end, where the altar stood before. The table stood in the same posture in his cathedral of Lincoln, and in the collegiate church of Westminster, where he was dean. But now he changed his opinion in some measure, and gave orders for railing in the communiontable in the middle of the chancel, and not at the east end. And, to support his practice, he wrote two tracts upon the controversy: one entitled, "A Letter to the Vicar of Grantham;" and the other called, "Holy Table, Name and Thing." Both these performances were answered by Dr. Heylin. The facto ries, &c. conform to the English Liturgy. June, 1634. to the factory And now, archbishop Laud had procured an order of council for bringing the English factories and forces in Holland to a conformity with the Liturgy. It was the same in substance with the "Considerations" laid before the board, already mentioned. This order, gained the last winter, was executed this year. And the number of the English merchants being considerable in Holland, and particularly at Delph, the archbishop wrote the following letter to the factory there : Archbishop "After our hearty commendations, &c., we are commanded Land's letter by his majesty to signify unto you, that this bearer, Mr. Beauat Delph. mont, chosen by joint consent of your company to be your preacher at Delph, or where else you shall at any time reside, I. 761*. is a man, learned, sober, and conformable to the doctrine and CHARLES discipline established in the Church of England, and that you are to receive him with all decent and courteous usage fitting his person and calling, and to allow him the usual ancient stipend, which Mr. Forbes lately, or any other before him, hath received. And further, we are to let you know that it is his majesty's express command, that both you, the deputy, and all and every other merchant that is or shall be residing in those parts beyond the seas, do conform themselves to the doctrine and discipline settled in the Church of England; and that they frequent the Common Prayers, with all religious duty and reverence, at all times required, as well as they do sermons; and that out of your company you do yearly about Easter, as the canons prescribe, name two churchwardens, and two sidesmen, which may look to the orders of the Church, and give an account according to their office; and Mr. Beaumont himself is hereby to take notice, that his majesty's express pleasure and command to him is, that he do punctually keep and observe all the orders of the Church of England, as they are prescribed in the canons and the rubrics of the Liturgy; and that, if any of your company shall show themselves refractory to this ordinance of his majesty. (which we hope will not be,) he is to certify the name of any such offender and his offence to the lord bishop of London for the time being, who is to take order and give remedy accordingly. And these letters you are to register and keep by you, that they which come after may understand what care his majesty hath taken for the well-ordering of your company in Church affairs. And you are likewise to deliver a copy of these letters to Mr. Beaumont, and to every successor of his respectively, that he and they may know what his majesty expects from them, and be the more inexcusable if they disobey. Thus, not doubting but that you will show yourselves very respectful to these his majesty's commands, we leave you to the grace of God, and rest your very loving friend, "June 17, 1634. W. CANTERBURY." The same directions, as to the main, were sent to the factory at Hamburgh, and all other places of trade, and plantations, where the English were settled: ambassadors' families Cyprian. were likewise put under the same regulation for divine service. Anglic. |