according to statute 3 Jac. ANsw. This also his majesty promised. That the laws against papists be put in execution, and that a day be fixed for the departure of all jesuits and seminary priests out of the kingdom, and that no natural-born subject, nor strange bishops, nor any other by authority from the see of Rome, confer any ecclesiastical orders, or exercise any ecclesiastical function, upon your majesty's subjects. ANSW. It shall be so published by proclamation. That your majesty's learned council may have orders to consider of all former grants of recusant lands, that such may be avoided as are avoidable by law. ANSW. It shall be done according as is desired. That your majesty give order to your judges and all officers of justice, to see the laws against popish recusants duly executed. ANSW. His majesty leaves the laws to their course. That your majesty will remove from places of authority and gov-. ernment all popish recusants. ANSW. His majesty will give order accordingly. That order be taken for disarming all popish recusants convict according to law, and that popish recusants be commanded to retire to their houses, and be confined within five miles of home. ANSW. The laws shall be put in execution. That none of your majesty's natural-born subjects go to hear mass at the houses or chapels of foreign ambassadors. ANSW. The king will give order accordingly. That the statute of 1 Eliz. for the payment of twelve-pence every Sunday by such as absent from divine service in the church without a lawful excuse, be put in execution. ANsw. The king promises the penalties shall not be dispensed with. That your majesty will extend your princely care to Ireland, that the like courses may be taken there for establishing the true religion. Answ. His majesty will do all that a religious king can do in that affair.*

The remark of Dr. Warner here is too pertinent and forcible, especially considering from whose pen it comes, to be omitted. "These gracious answers of his majesty," says he, "to the several articles of the petition presented to him by both houses of parliament, wanted nothing but the performance of the promises which he made, to gain him the love of all his protestant subjects. But if we may judge by the 'continual complaints of the parliament throughout this reign, about 'these very points on which the king had given this satisfaction, we shall find reason to think, that his promises were observed no better than James his father observed his."

Warner's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 513. Ed.

It is surprising that the king should make these promises to his parliament within six months after he had signed his marriage articles, in which he had engaged to set all Roman-catholics at liberty, and to suffer no search or molestation of them for their religion, and had in consequence of it pardoned twenty Romish priests, and (in imitation of his royal father) given orders to his lord-keeper to direct the judges and justices of peace all over England, "to for'bear all manner of proceedings against his Roman-catholie subjects, by information, indictment, or otherwise; it 'being his royal pleasure that there should be a cessation 'of all and singular pains and penalties whereunto they 'were liable by any laws, statutes, or ordinances of this 'realm." But, as a judicious writer observes, it seems to have been a maxim in this and the last reign, that no faith is to be kept with parliaments. The papists were apprized of the reasons of state that obliged the king to comply outwardly with what he did not really intend; and therefore, though his majesty directed a letter to his archbishop [Dec. 15, 1625,] to proceed against popish recusants, and a proclamation was published to recal the English youths from popish seminaries, little regard was paid to them. The king himself released eleven Romish priests out of prison, by special warrant the next day; the titular bishop of Chalcedon, by letters dated June 1, 1625, appointed a popish vicar-general and archdeacons all over England, whose names were published in the year 1643.‡

* Rushworth, p. 173. § Rapin.

† Fuller tells us, that this titular bishop of Chalcedon, whose name was Smith, appeared in his pontificalibus in Lancashire, with his mitre. and erosier. This was an evident proof, that the catholics presumed on the indulgence and connivance, if not the protection of the court. To shew which, the fact is brought forward by Mr. Neal; whose candor in this matter Dr. Grey impeaches, because he does not inform his reader, that the king issued a proclamation for apprehending this Romish agent. But it seems to have escaped Dr. Grey's attention, that a proclamation not issued till the 11th of December, 1628, and not then, till drawn from him by a petition of both houses against recusants.can have little weight against the imputation on the king, which this fact is alledged to support. Rushworth's Collections, vol. i, p. 511. Ed.

Rushworth, p. 158-9, and Fuller's Church History, b. xi, p. 132-3, VOL. II.

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And when the next parliament petitioned for the removal of papists from offices of trust, it appeared, by a list annexed to their petition, that there were no less than fiftynine of the nobility and gentry of that religion then in the commission.*

But the king not only connived at the Roman catholics at home, but unhappily contributed to the ruin of the protestant religion abroad. Cardinal Richlieu having formed a design to extirpate the hugonots of France, by securing all their places of strength, laid siege to Rochel, a sea-port town with a good harbor, and a number of ships sufficient for its defence. Richlieu, taking advantage of the king's late match with France, sent to borrow seven or eight ships, to be employed as the king of France should direct, who appointed them to block up the harbor of Rochel; but when the honest sailors were told where they were going, they declared they would rather be thrown overboard, or hanged upon the top of the masts, than fight against their protestant brethren. Notwithstanding admiral Pennington and the French officers used all their rhetoric to persuade them, they remained inflexible. The admiral therefore acquainted the king, who sent him a warrant to the following effect: "That he should consign his own ship immediately into the hands of the French admiral, with all her equipage, artillery, &c. and require the other seven to put themselves into the service of our dear brother the French king; and in case of backwardness or refusal, we command you to use all forcible means, even to their sink'ing." In pursuance of this warrant,the ships were delivered into the hands of the French, but all the English sailors and officers deserted except two. The French having got the ships and artillery,quickly manned them with sailors of their own religion, and joining the rest of the French fleet, they blocked up the harbor, destroyed the little fleet of the Rochellers, and cut off their communication by sea with their protestant friends, by which means they were

* See Rashworth's Collection, vol. i. p. 393, &c. The names of some of these persons perhaps were returned only on the ground of suspicion; because their wives and children were of the Romish communion, or did not come to church. "Mr. Neal," therefore, according to Dr. Grey, "mistook Rushworth.”

reduced to all the hardships of a most dreadful famine; and after a long blockade both by sea and land, were forced to surrender the chief bulwark of the protestant interest in France, into the hands of the papists.

To return to the parliament. It has been remembered, that Mr. Richard Montague, a clergyman, and one of the king's chaplains, published a book in the year 1623, entitled A new Gag for an old Goose, in answer to the popish book, entitled A Gag for the new Gospel.* The book containing sundry propositions tending to the public disturbance, was complained of in the house of commons, who, after having examined the author at their bar, referred him to the archbishop of Canterbury, who dismissed him with an express prohibition to write no more about such matters. But Montague, being encouraged from court, went on and published An Appeal to Cæsar, designing it for king James; but he being dead before it was ready, it was dedicated to king Charles, and recommended at first by several court bishops, who upon better consideration artfully withdrew their names from before it; and left Dr. Francis White to appear by himself, as he complained publicly. The appeal was calculated to promote Arminianism, to attempt a reconciliation with Rome, and to advance the king's prerogative above law. The house appointed a committee to examine into its errors; after which they voted it to be contrary to the articles of the church of England, and bound the author in a recognizance of two thousand pounds for his appearance.

Bishop Laud, apprehending this to be an invasion of the prerogative, and a dangerous precedent, joined with two other bishops in a letter to the duke of Buckingham, to engage his majesty to take the cause into his own hands: The letter says, "that the church of England when it was re'formed would not be too busy with school points of divi'nity; now the points for which Mr. Montague is brought into trouble, are of this kind; some are the resolved doctrines of the church of England, which he is bound to ́ maintain ; and others are fit only for schools, wherein men * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 177.

† Cabbala, p. 105; Rushworth, vol. i. 180-81 ; or, p. 110, 111, of the edition in 1663.

'may abound in their own sense. To make men subscribe 'school opinions is hard, and was one great fault of the 'council of Trent. Besides, disputes about doctrines in re'ligion ought to be determined in a national synod or convocation, with the king's licence, and not in parliament; if we submit to any other judge, we shall depart from the ' ordinance of Christ, we shall derogate from the honor of the late king, who saw and approved of all the opinions in that book; as well as from his present majesty's royal 'prerogative, who has power and right to take this matter under his own care, and refer it in a right course to church 'consideration. Some of the opinions which are opposite to Mr. Montague's will prove fatal to the government, if publicly taught and maintained: When they had been 'concluded upon at Lambeth, queen Elizabeth caused them to be suppressed, and so they continued, till of late some of them received countenance from the synod of Dort; a 'synod, whose conclusions have no authority in this coun'try, and it is to be hoped never will." Signed Jo. Roffensis, Jo. Oxen, and Gulielmus Menevensis, Aug. 2d, 1625.

This letter had its effect, and procured Montague his quietus at present. The king declared he would bring the cause before the council, it being a branch of his suprema cy to determine matters of religion. He expressed his displeasure against the commons, for calling his chaplain to their bar, and for alarming the nation with the danger of popery. But these affairs, with the king's assisting at the siege of Rochel, made such a noise at Oxford, where the parliament was reassembled because of the plague'at London, that the king was obliged to dissolve them [August 12.] before they had granted the supplies necessary for carrying on the war. Nor did his majesty pass any act relating to religion, except one, which was soon after suspended by his royal declaration; it was to prevent unlawful pastimes on the Lord's-day. The preamble sets forth, That the holy keeping of the Lord's-day is a principal part of the true service of God-"Therefore it is enacted that there shall be no assemblies of people out of their own parishes, for any sports or pastimes whatsoever; nor any bear-baiting, bull-baiting, interludes, common plays, or other unlawful exercises or pastimes, within their own