Trial of the Charge of High Treason, Title page – To the reader
THE WHOLE TRIALL OF Mr Chriſtopher Love. BEFORE A pretended High Court of Juſtice in Weſtminſter-Hall. Containing The Charge of High Treaſon againſt him. Debates between the Court and him before his pleading to the Charge. The ſeveral depoſitions of the Witneſſes. Mr. Loves Defence to the Charge and Evidence. Mr. Serjeant Hales (a learned Counſell) his Plea againſt the Charge and Evidence. And the Sentence. WITH The Relation of his Suffering, and his Speech and Prayer at his Death upon the Scaffold on Tower-hill.
Publiſhed by John Farthing Citizen of London, who took the Triall in the ſaid Court in Short-writing for Mr. Love, and at his own requeſt.
To which is added, The Tragedy of his Triall and Death in very elegant Verſes By the acute Author of Iter Boreale.
London, Printed in the Year, 1660.
TO THE READER.
Reader,
THou haſt here a true and impartiall account of the Proceedings of the High Court of Juſtice (ſo called) againſt that faithfull Servant and Miniſter of Chriſt M. Chriſtopher Love, a man of ſo much and ſuch known wor…h while he lived, and of ſo good a name and memory now dead, that as any thing I can ſay of him would ſignifie little, ſo I ſhall be wholy ſilent in it: What and how extreme the Proceedings of the Court were againſt him, will by this that follows ſufficiently appear, eſpecially if thou doſt but conſiderately peruſe M. Loves defence, and the Plea of that honourable Gentleman, and his then faithfull Counſell M. Serjeant Hales, againſt both the Charge and Evidence. This triall was formerly printed, but not till now made thus publick, the times not bearing it. The Court took a ſevere courſe to have prevented the publiſhing of it, as being (it ſeems) conſcious to themſelves of their own foul and falſe play therein; and did therefore every day commit my very Notes to the Tower, (though they did not prove to be under ſuch ſtrict keeping, but that I had the liberty of giving them ſeverall viſits) not that I think every one of the Court ſhould fall under the ſame conſideration, for there were divers of them (as I am certainly informed▪) that would not at all have appeared in it, but upon the earneſt ſolicitation of ſome nearly related to M. Love, and that only in order (if it could have been) to the ſaving of his life. My aim in now publiſhing this Triall, is not that it ſhould prove an injury to or an irritation of any, but partly a little to revive the memory of that now bleſſed ſervant of God (though I know the righteous ſhall be had in everlaſting remembrance) and partly that the world may be ſomewhat acquainted with the manner of proceedings of our high Courts of Justice, eſpecially when they have been erected (as it is too too apparent ours have been) only to feed the malice, and ſerve the corrupt and unjuſt intereſts, of ambitious and mercileſs men.
J. F.