what it should be; for he was suspected, on account of his moderation and piety, to entertain some "obliquity of opinion." *

Bishop Hall dedicated his Treatise on the Divine Right of Episcopacy to Charles I. in which he states that he undertook the work on account that episcopacy had suffered in the north, meaning Scotland," to the height of patience;" that it was "reported that one George Grahame, bishop of Orkney, had openly, before the whole body of the assembly, renounced his episcopal function, and craved pardon for having accepted it, as if thereby he had committed some heinous offence." The Bishop also intimates that he had "met with some affronts" within his own diocese of Exeter and jurisdiction.

Bishop Hall was the most celebrated writer of his times in defence of the Church of England; and his Treatise on the Divine Right of Episcopacy is a proof of his deep research, erudition, and piety; he brings forward such proofs and arguments for episcopacy as cannot be shaken, and in the conclusion of the Treatise he recapitulates the several heads of the subject, and, with zeal and pious earnestness, addresses his readers and brethren, saying, "for Christ's sake, for the

* See Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 402.

church's sake, for your souls' sake, be exhorted to hold fast to this holy institution of your blessed Saviour and his unerring Apostles; and bless God for episcopacy. Do but cast your eyes a little back, and see what noble instruments of God's glory he hath been pleased to raise up in this very church of ours, out of this sacred vocation: what famous servants of God; what strong champions of truth, and renowned antagonists of Rome and her superstitions; what admirable preachers; what incomparable writers; yea, what constant and undaunted martyrs and confessors; men, that gave their blood for the Gospel; and embraced their faggots flaming, which many gregary (ordinary, or common) professors held enough to carry cold and painless, to the wonder and gratulation of all foreign churches, and to the unparallelled glory of his church and nation?

"What christian church under heaven hath, in so short a time, yielded so many glorious lights of the gospel, so many able and prevalent adversaries of schism and antichristianism, so many eminent authors of learned works, which shall outbid time itself. Let envy grind her teeth: the memory of these worthy Prelates shall be ever sweet and blessed.

"Neither doubt I, but that it will please God, out of the same rod of Aaron still to raise such blossoms and fruit, as shall win him glory to all

eternity. Go you on to honour these your reverend pastors; to hate all factious withdrawings from that government, which comes the nearest of any church upon earth to the apostolical."*

Through the overbearing conduct of Laud, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs on the one hand, and the factious and turbulent spirit of the separatists on the other, the tranquillity of the church. was much disturbed. Bagshaw, a lawyer of some standing in the Middle Temple, being elected a Reader or Lecturer in that house for the Lent vacation, boldly laid the axe to the root of episcopacy, by calling into question the right of bishops to have place and vote in Parliament, and their power and authority altogether. In his Lectures on the 25th Edw. III. c. 7, he maintained that Acts of Parliament were valid without the assent of the lords spiritual. That no beneficed clerk was capable of temporal jurisdiction at the making that law; and, that no bishop, without calling a synod, had power as a diocesan, to convict a heretic. Laud, when informed of this, told the king that Bagshaw had justified the Scots Cove nanters in decrying the temporal jurisdiction of churchmen, and the undoubted right of the bishops to their seats in parliament: upon which

* See Bishop Hall's Works, vol. ix, pp. 623, 624.

Bagshaw was immediately interdicted all further reading on those points; and though he humbly petitioned the Lord Keeper and the Archbishop for liberty to proceed, he could get no other answer, than "it had been better for him not to have meddled with that argument, which should stick closer to him than he was aware of." Whereupon he retired into the country.

The year 1640 began with a Parliament and Convocation. Such was now the state of affairs, that the king was under the necessity of calling a parliament, after an intermission of nearly twelve years, in order to renew the war with Scotland. The two houses assembled according to their summons, in the month of April, with the usual formalities. The king condescended to open the parliament with only the following short speech from the throne:

My Lords and Gentlemen,

"There never was a king that had a more great and weighty cause to call his people together than myself. I will not trouble you with the particulars I have informed my Lord Keeper and commanded him to speak, and to desire your attention."

*Heylin's Life of Laud, pp. 406, 407. Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. ii, p. 323.

This short speech appears a kind of preface to Sir John Finch, the Lord Keeper's long speech, in which he commented on the proceedings of the Scots against the king, and his Majesty's urgent want of supply towards vindicating his honour, and intimated to them also at the same time that his Majesty was far from intending to preclude them from their right of enquiring into the state of the kingdom, and of offering him petitions for redress of grievances. But the Commons, instead of beginning with the supply according to his Majesty's wish, appointed committees for religion and grievances, which disobliged the king so much, that after several fruitless attempts to persuade them to grant him a subsidy, he dissolved the parliament in displeasure, without passing a single act, after they had sat about three weeks.

But other means of obtaining a subsidy were employed, which were highly offensive and grievous to the people. The odium of these proceedings fell on Laud and Strafford, who were libelled and threatened with the fury of the populace. In the month of May, 1640, the archbishop's palace at Lambeth was attacked by the mob; one of the ringleaders was apprehended and suffered death. During this month, and the whole summer, there

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* Warner's Eccles. Hist. of England, vol. ii, p. 528.