avoided, as the King could not raise money without one; for now seeing all his other experiments had failed him, they knew that in cafe of an enquiry, that little mercy would be fhewed them. They began now to fhift for themselves, and left their mafter when he most needed their fervice..

The parliament affembled November the third, and was opened with a gracious fpeech from the throne. One claufe in his Majefty's fpeech gave great offence; he called the Scots rebels at a time when there was a pacification between the two nations; but Charles, inftead of foftening this harsh sentiment, affirmed, that he would call the Scots neither better nor worfe. The houfes petitioned his Majesty to appoint a fast to obtain a bleffing upon their councils, which was obferved on the seventeenth of November. Meffrs Marshal and Burgefs preached before the commons, and were no way fparing as to the length of their difcourfes: the first preached from 2 Chron. xv. 2, and the latter from Jer. 1. 5; they adapted their fermons to the occafion, but obferved a proper degree of caution. On the Sabbath following, all the members received the facrament from the hands of Bishop Williams, Dean of Westminfter, not at the rail about the altar, but at a communion table in the middle of the church, erected for the purpofe.

This parliament was no fooner affembled, than they formed four grand committees; the firft to receive petitions concerning grievances of religion; the fecond to confider the affairs of Scotland and

Ireland;

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Ireland; the third for civil grievances, fuch as ship-money, judges, courts of juftice, and monopolies, &c. the fourth concerning popery, and plots relating thereto. The first religious grievance which they took under their confideration was the acts and canons of the late convocation. Many fevere fpeeches were made against the compilers of these, and fome very jùft arguments offered against the canons themfelves. Lord Digby, Sir B. Rudyard, Sir J. Culpeper, Sir Edward Deering, and Sir Harbottle Grimstone, fpoke with great zeal against them. The power affumed by the prelates, of excommunicating, fuspending, and depriving whom they pleafed, was condemned with a good degree of acrimony; and fome farcaftical reflections were thrown out against the clergy and the late canons which they had framed. Some were for discharging, fome for difmounting, and others for melting them down; and there were not one in the house who shewed the leaft friendly difpofition to thefe new creatures of the clergy, except Mr Holburn, who fpoke two hours in their defence. A committee was at last appointed, among whom were Meffrs Selden, Maynard, and Coke, to fearch for the warrant by which the convocation was held, after the parliament was broke up, and, for the letters patent of the benevolence, and fuch other materials as might affift the house on their next debate upon this fubject, which was appointed for December fourteen. Some members accounted the crime of the convocation high treafon, but others thought that they were only in a premu-.

nire. In conclufion they agreed, nemine contradicente, that the clergy affembled in convocation have no power to make, conftitutions to bind the laity or clergy of the nation, without the consent of parliament; that the feveral conftitutions, and canons ecclefiaftical, treated upon by the two Archbishops, Presidents of their refpective provinces, and agreed upon with the King's licence at London and York, one thousand fix hundred and forty, do not bind the clergy and laity of the land, nor any of them; that the late canons do contain in them many things contrary to the King's prerogative, the laws of the land, the fundamental laws of the land, and the rights of parliament, and are dangerous to the liberty and property of the fubjects, and tend to fedition; that the feveral grants of benevolence are contrary to law. If the first of these refolutions be according to law, it is doubtful if there were then, any canons fubfifting, for thofe of one thousand fix hundred and three were not brought into parliamentary convocation, were ratified by the King under the Great Seal, and fo became binding to the clergy, according to the ftatute of the twenty-fifth of King Henry the Eighth. In the Saxon times all ecclefiaftical laws and conftitutions were confirmed by the peers, and by the reprefentatives of the people; but thofe great councils, to which our parliaments fucceeded, being made up of laicks and ecclefiafticks, were afterwards divided, and then the clergy did their bufinefs by themfelves, and enacted laws without confirmation of

King

King or Parliament, during the reign of popery, till the act of fubmiffion of the clergy to King Henry the Eighth; fo that the claim of making canons, without confent of parliament, feemed to ftand upon no no other foundation than the ufurped power of the Pope : nor did the parliament in those times yield up their right, for in the fifth of Edward the Third the commons paffed a bill, That no act or ordinance fhould be made for the future upon the petition of the clergy, without confent of the commons; and that the faid commons fhould not be bound for the future by any conftitutions of the clergy, to which they had not given their confent to parliament; but the bill was dropped, and things went on upon the former footing till the reign of King Henry the Eighth, when the Pope's ufurped power was fet afide, and both parliament and clergy agreed (by the act of fubmiffion) that no canons fhould be binding without the royal affent, nor that the clergy in convocation fhould fo much as confult about any, without the King's fpecial licence: but Serjeant Maynard faid in the houfe, that it did not follow, that because the clergy might not make canons without the King's licence, that therefore they might make them and bind them on the clergy by his licence a lone; for this were to take away the ancient rights of parliament before the Pope's ufurpation, which they never yielded up, nor does the act of fubmiffion of the clergy take away. Upon this reafoning the commons voted their firft refolution,

the

the ftrength of which I leave to the confideration of the reader..

The arguments, upon which the other refolutions are founded, will be put together after we have related the proceedings of convocation.

The convocation was opened November four: Dr Bargrave, Dean of Canterbury, preached the fermon; and Dr Steward, Dean of Chichester, was chofen prolocutor, and prefented to the Archbishop's acceptance in King Henry the Seventh's chapel, when his Grace made a pathetic fpeech, lamenting the danger of the church, and exhorting every one prefent to perform the duty of their places with refolution, and not to be wanting to themfelves, or the caufe of religion; but nothing of moment was tranfacted, there being no commiffion for the King; only Mr Warmifter, one of the clerks for the diocefe of Worcefter, being convinced of the invalidity of the late canons, moved the houfe, that they might cover the pit which they had opened, and prevent a parliamentary inquifition, by petitioning the King for leave to review them; but his motion was rejected, the house being of opinion that the canons were juftifiable, nor would they appear fo mean as to condemn themselves before they were accused. Mr Warmiftre fuffered in the cpinion of his brethren within doors for his cow ardly fpeech; and was reproached from without as an enemy to the church, and a turn-coat, because he had fubfcribed thofe articles which he now condemned. 'This obliged him to publish Vol. III.

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