WHIT- Count Baltinglass, got off into Spain, where he died with Cambden, Pitts de The assembly's re 589. court of Rome, and joined the rebellion. To engage the earl of Ormond, who was descended from archbishop Beckett's sister, he ventured to put him in mind, that "unless St. Thomas of Canterbury had lost his life for the Church of Rome, Butler would never have been earl of Ormond." For to make some satisfaction for Beckett's death, king Henry II. had granted his ancestors a noble estate in Ormond. This year Thomas Watson, late bishop of Lincoln, departed this life. He was a warm Roman Catholic, and suffered for his persuasion in the reign of king Edward VI. He was preferred to the see of Lincoln by queen Mary. At the recovery of the Reformation he was imprisoned in the Tower, in the year 1559. Here he continued till the year 1582, when he was removed to Wisbeach castle, where he died. Pitts gives him the character of a famous preacher, a solid divine, and a good poet. He wrote a volume of sermons, a Latin tragedy, and some pieces of poetry. Το back a little for the Church affairs in Scotland. In go October this year there was a general assembly at Edinburgh. They delivered a remonstrance to the king under several heads, some of which I shall mention. They complained Papists were too much countenanced at monstrance. court; and that his majesty seemed to favour the enemies of truth both in France and at home. That he had made the Church a great many fair promises, without performing any thing; and that their liberties and privileges were continually wrested from them. That the thirds were leased out to the prejudice of the Church; that abbeys were disposed of contrary to act of parliament; and no provision made for the ministers who officiated at the churches annexed. That spiritual preferments were bestowed upon children, alienated in tenure and use, and erected into temporal lordships. That his majesty interposed too far with the regale, and superseded the process of the Church in matters properly ecclesiastical. The Spotswood's rest of the remonstrance goes directly into the State, and complains of mal-administration. Ch. Hist. p. 327. MS. Acts of the Assembly. The king, who was willing to please them, returned a gracious answer the next day: he denied the countenancing Roman Catholics; but hoped they would not be too curious in their BETH. inquiry about his servants. As to his correspondence with ELIZAforeign princes, which they glanced at, he thought the assembly would not disallow a commerce of this kind for preserving the repose of the kingdom; and that difference of religion did not bar friendship, and make alliances unlawful: and whereas they complained the Church had suffered in her privileges, his answer was, that since his taking the government upon him, there had been more laws made for the service of religion than ever that as to the alienation of the Church revenues, that grievance must be referred to the parliament; and that he should endeavour a redress to the utmost of his power. And as for his checking the jurisdiction of the Church, he was only sensible of a single instance which looked that way: and that, he conceived, was sufficiently defensible. The rest, relating to the State, shall be omitted. This answer ought to have given satisfaction; but the court and ministry not being formed to the Kirk's inclination, they kept on their chagrin, and nothing would please them. And now the pulpits began to run riot: for instance, one John Dury, a minister at Edinburgh, took the freedom to justify the surprising the king at Ruthven: and being summoned before the council, he defended his treasonable discourse at first; but afterwards, upon better advice, was brought to a submission. He was kept for some time on his good behaviour. Idem. clines the Andrew Melvil's declamation had a worse issue. This gentleman had preached a seditious sermon at St. Andrew's, and arraigned the government in a provoking manner: he told the audience, that it was the business of the nobility and the estates of the realm to reform the abuses and mismanagement of the court and for this he alleged several precedents, and particularly some in the reign of James III. For this disloyal invective he was ordered to appear at the council-board. But Melvil dehe demurred to their jurisdiction; and was so hardy to affirm, jurisdiction "that what was delivered in the pulpit ought first to be tried of the counby the presbytery: and that though the expressions were treasonable, neither king nor council ought to take cognizance of them in the first instance." And after some pains had been taken with him to no purpose, the board went on to examine witnesses against him: upon this he broke out into intemperate language, and told the king "he perverted the laws both Ibid. et of God and man.' For this misbehaviour he was ordered to Libel. &c. cil-board. Refutat. GIFT, WHIT custody at Blackness; but the commitment being left to himAbp. Cant. self, he took a contrary road in the night, and made his escape to Berwick. And now all the pulpits declaimed loudly against the court: that the Reformation was struck at, and the greatest man both for learning and zeal was banished the kingdom, and forced to fly for his life. Not long after, the earl of Gowry was apprehended, and the castle of Stirling surprised by some of his adherents. The earl was tried for high treason: one article was, the concerting this plot; he was found guilty, and executed. Several of the preachers were informed against, for corresponding with the rebels. A summons was sent to Mr. Andrew Hay, parson of Renfrew, Mr. Andrew Polwart, sub-dean of Glasgow, Mr. Patrick Galaway, and Mr. James Carmichael, to appear before the council. None but Mr. Hay made their appearance. The other three, therefore, being proclaimed traitors, fled into Spotswood's England. Ch. Hist. May 22, 1584. ment made against the seditious At the parliament held now at Edinburgh, his majesty's declaration concerning the treasonable attempt at Ruthven Several acts was confirmed. There was likewise an act made to check the of parlia late misbehaviour of the preachers. The preamble runs thus: "Forasmuch as some persons being lately called before preachers. the king's majesty, and his secret council, to answer upon certain points to have been inquired of them concerning some treasonable, seditious, and contumelious speeches uttered by them in pulpits, schools, and otherwise, to the disdain and reproach of his highness, his progenitors and present council, contemptuously declined the judgment of his highness and his council, in that behalf, to the evil example of others to do the like, if timous remedy be not provided." By the enacting part, the king's authority over all persons, as well spiritual as temporal, is confirmed. The declining to submit to the cognizance of the king and council in all matters whatever, is made treason: the impugning the dignity and authority of the three estates in parliament, is forbidden under the same penalty. All jurisdictions, spiritual or temporal, not approved by the king and parliament, are abolished and discharged. "It is likewise enacted, that no subjects, spiritual or temporal, of what quality soever, presume to convene themselves for holding conventions or assemblies to treat or consult upon any matters, civil or ecclesiastical, (excepting in the ordi BETH. nary methods of justice) without a special licence from his ELIZAmajesty and that none, of what function, quality, or degree whatsoever, shall presume privately or publicly, in sermons, declamations, or familiar conferences, to utter any false or slanderous speeches, to the reproach and contempt of his majesty, his council and proceedings, or to meddle in the affairs of his highness's administration, under the penalty con- parl. 8. tained in the acts of parliament against makers and tellers of cap. 129. leasing." James 6. 131. 134. That is, lies. By another act, all parsons, ministers, or readers provided Ministers to be deprived, to benefices since his highness's coronation (not having vote in for what the parliament), suspected culpable of heresy, papistry, erro- crimes. neous doctrine, common blasphemy, fornication, non-residence, (that is, not residing within the parish, but absent from it, and from the kirk and his office for four Sabbaths in the year, without leave from his ordinary) and plurality of benefices having cure, are to be deprived: but here the clause of non-residence does not reach to those of the king's council, to those who are lords of the session, nor to such as are absent on his highness's service. To proceed: simony and dilapidation are added to the rest. Thus any clergyman not within the saving clauses found guilty by the bishop of the diocese, or the king's ecclesiastical commissioners, of the crimes above mentioned, is to be stripped of his office and benefice. "It is farther enacted, that no ministers shall accept or execute any place of judicature, civil or criminal, or be clerks or notaries (except in making of testaments), under the pain of deprivation from office and benefice." 590. James 6. cap. 133. parl. 8. James 6. parl. 8. Buchanan's sured in And to conclude with this parliament, "Master George cap. 133. Buchanan's Chronicle," and his book "De Jure Regni apud books cenScotos," "are declared to contain sundry offensive matters parliament. worthy to be deleted or expunged." It is therefore statuted and ordained, that every person that has either or both those books, shall deliver them to the lord secretary, or his deputies, within forty days, under the penalty of forfeiting two hundred pounds Scots." 66 The reason why these books are ordered to be delivered into the secretary's office is, "that they may be purged of the scandalous passages, not being fit to remain as records of truth to posterity." James 6. parl. 8. Most of these statutes were unacceptable to the ministers. cap. 134. GIFT, to hinder the no purpose. ried this title now was one Stewart, of WHIT- Therefore while the bills were debating in the house, they Abp. Cant. endeavoured to hinder their passing, or at least to get them The Church postponed. To this purpose, Mr. David Lindsay was sent to endeavours entreat the king, that no act in which the Church was conpassing these cerned, should pass till the assembly was heard. The earl of bills, but to Arran, being informed of his design, put him under an arrest, He that car and prevented his addressing the king: his holding correspondence with England was the pretence for confining him. the family of Lawson and Balcanquel, ministers of Edinburgh, hearing of Lindsay's commitment, deserted their charge, and retired into England. They left a paper behind them by way of apology for going off. Mr. Robert Pont, minister of St. Cuthbert's, and one of the lords of the session, entered a public protestation against the acts above-mentioned. This instrument, against the legality of drawn up in form, he put into the hands of a notary, when the these acts of parliament. herald, according to custom, was proclaiming the acts. His protestation set forth, that the Church had no due consideration in the passing these acts, and therefore they were not bound by them. For this bold challenge he was turned out of Spotswood's the college of justice, and proclaimed traitor. Lenox. Pont, a minister, declares publicly Ch. Hist. declaration. Upon this, reports were spread that the king was gone over to popery: that several acts were made to check the course of the Gospel, and to suppress all good order and polity in the Church. To prevent these discourses from making an impression, the king set forth a declaration, in which the reasons for making these statutes are recited. Amongst the motives which forced the king upon this provision, these following are The king's reckoned, viz.: "The approbation of the Ruthven conspiracy by the assembly; Andrew Melvil's refusing to be tried at the council-board; the fast kept at the entertainment of the French ambassadors; fasts ordered by the Kirk for the whole kingdom, without the king's leave or knowledge; ecclesiastical jurisdiction usurped by ministers and lay gentlemen; altering the laws at their pleasure, and many other resembling abuses. And to give farther satisfaction, several articles were annexed to the declaration, to shew the king's adherence to the religion established; and that he intended nothing more than bringing the Church under an uniform and unexceptionable regulation.' The court libelled. But these apologetics were little regarded: invective answers came out, the court was pelted in prose and rhyme, and great clamours were made, that all the preachers at Edinburgh |