Declaration Concerning the Late Tumults in Scotland, Floating text 31 – Letter 17
CAROLUS Dei gratia, Magnae Britanniae, Franciae, & Hiberniae Rex, fidei que Defensor, Omnibus probis hominibus suis ad quos praesentes literae pervenerint, Salutem. Sciatis nos considerantes magnos in hoc regno nostro Scotiae non ita pridem exortos tumultus, ad quos quidem componendos multiplices regiae nostrae voluntatis declarationes promulgavimus, quae tamen minorem spe nostrâ effectum hactenus sortitae sunt: Et nunc statuentes ex pio erga dictum antiquum regnum nostrum affectu, ut omnia gratiosè stabiliantur & instaurentur, quod (per absentiam nostram) non aliâ ratione melius effici potest quam fideli aliquo Delegato constituto, cui potestatem credere possimus tumultus hujusmodi consopiendi, alia que officia praestandi, quae in bonum & commodum dicti antiqui regni nostri eidem Delegato nostro imperare nobis videbitur. Cum que satis compertum habeamus obsequium, diligentiam, & fidem praedilecti nostri consanguinei & consiliarii, Jacobi Marchionis Hamiltonii, Comitis Arraniae & Cantabrigiae, Domini Aven & Innerdail, &c. eundem que ad imperata nostra exequenda sufficienter instructum esse, Id…irco fecisse & constituisse, tenore que praesentium facere & constituere praefatum praedilectum nostrum consanguineum & consiliarium Jacobum Marchionem de Hamiltoun nostrum Commissionarium ad effectum subscriptum. Cum potestate dicto Jacobo Marchioni de Hamiltoun, &c. dictum regnum nostrum adeundi, ibidem que praefatos tumultus in dicto regno nostro componendi, alia que officia à nobis eidem committenda in dicti regni nostri bonum & commodum ibi praestandi, eo que Concilium nostrum quibus locis & temporibus ei visum fuerit convocandi, ac rationem & ordinem in praemissis exequendis servandum declarandi & praescribendi; & quaecun que alia ad Commissionis hujus capita pro commissâ sibi fide exequenda, eandem que ad absolutum finem perducendam & prosequendam conferre possunt, tam in Concilio quam extra Concilium, nostro nomine efficiendi & praestandi; id que similitèr & adeò liberè acsi nos in sacrosancta nostra persona ibidem adessemus. Praeterea cum plena potestate dicto Jacobo Marchioni de Hamiltoun, prout sibi videbitur nostro servitio & bono dicti regni nostri conducere, conventum omnium ordinum ejusdem regni nostri indicendi, ac publica comitia & conventus eorundem ordinum eorumve alterius vel utriusque quibus temporibus & locis sibi visum fuerit statuendi, & ibidem nostram sacratissimam personam cum omnibus honoribus & privilegiis supremo Commissionario nostri Parliamenti & publici conventus incumben̄ similiter adeo que amplè sicut quivis supremus Commissionarius quocun que tempore retroacto gavisus est gerendi: Necnon cum potestate praefato Jacobo Marchioni de Hamiltoun Synodos nationales ecclesiae dicti regni nostri tenendas temporibus & locis quibus sibi visum fuerit indicendi, & ibidem seipsum tanquam nostrum Commissionarium gerendi, omnia que eisdem tenendis inservientia secundum leges & praxin praedictae ecclesiae & regni nostri praestandi: Et hac praesenti nostrâ Commissione durante nostro beneplacito duratura, & semper donec eadem per nos expressè inhibeatur. In cujus rei testimonium, praesentibus magnum sigillum nostrum unà cum privato nostro sigillo (quia praefatus Marchio de Hamiltoun in praesentiarum est magni sigilli custos) apponi praecepimus, Apud Oatlands vigesimo nono die mensis Julii, Anno Domini millesimo sexcentesimo trigesimo octavo, Et anno regni nostri decimo quarto.
Per signaturam manu S. D. N. Regis suprascriptam.
NOw, this Our Commission was sealed both with Our great Seale of that Kingdome and Our Privie Seale, because the Archbishop of S. Andrewes the late Lord Chancellour, had lately delivered up unto Us Our Great Seale of that Kingdome, which being by Us for a time deposited into the custodie of Our Commissioner untill We should otherwise dispose of it, it was thought fit, that Our Commission to him should be attested, not onelyonly by Our Great Seale, which he then had in his custodie, but by Our Privie Seale also, which was in the keeping of the Lord Privie Seale: After the Commission read, Our Commissioner exhorted them to a peaceable and moderate carriage, touching a little (but with great discretion) the disorderly proceedings which had been used before their meeting: At which a Nobleman Lay-Elder presently took fire (an undoubted presage of their succeeding carriage) and answered sharply, That they had given his Grace content for all their proceedings; to which Our Commissioner replyed, That hee had never yet received any satisfaction from them in any of their proceedings, and, by way of attestation, called God to witnesse to it: It had like to have growne to a hot contestation, but that that night the Assembly was dismissed. The next day upon their first sitting down, they urged presently the choice of a Moderatour; but Our Commissioner desired first Our Letter to the Assembly to be read, which was done, and it was thus:
ALthough Wee be not ignorant that the best of Our actions have beene mistaken by many of Our subjects in that Our ancient Kingdome, as if Wee had intended innovation in Religion or Lawes; yet considering nothing to be more incumbent to the duty of a Christian King, then the advancement of Gods glory, and the true Religion; forgetting what is past, We have seriously taken to Our Princely consideration such particulars as may settle and establish the truth of Religion in that Our ancient Kingdome, and also to satisfie all Our good people of the reality of Our intentions herein, having indicted a free Generall Assembly to be kept at Glasgow the 21. of this instant; Wee have likewise appointed Our Commissioner to attend the same, from whom you are to expect Our pleasure in every thing, and to whom Wee require you to give that true and due respect and obedience, as if Wee were personally present Our selves. And in full assurance of Our consent to what he shall in Our name promise, We have signed these, and wills the same for a testimonie to posterity to bee registred in the Bookes of the Assembly.
At White-Hall the 29. of October. 1638.
THen they called againe for the choice of a Moderator, at which time one Doctor Hammilton presented to Our Commissioner a Declinator and Protestation in the name of the Bishops against the Assembly, containing the nullities of it, with a desire that it might be read, and a publique Act entred for the production of it: Upon this there arose a very great heat in the Assembly, they alledging, that nothing could be done untill a Moderator was chosen; and they did directly refuse to reade the said Declinator: upon which both Our Commissioner entred a Protestation in Our Clerke of Registers hands against the refusall of it, and tooke instruments thereupon; and so likewise did Doctor Hammilton in the name of the Bishops. At last they proceeded to the choice of a Moderator, to which, before Our Commissioner gave way, hee entred (as before) another Protestation, that their Act of chusing should neither prejudice Our Prerogative and Authoritie, nor any Law or Custome of that Church and Kingdome, nor barre him (when he should see cause) from taking legall exceptions, either against the person elected, or the illegalitie of his election: And so they having put divers other stales upon the List, accordingly as it was resolved upon before at their Tables in Edinburgh, without one contrarie voice except his owne, who could not chuse himselfe, one Master Alexander Henderson, the prime and most rigid Covenanter in the Kingdome, was chosen Moderator.
The third day Our Commissioner, at their first meeting, required againe that the Bishops Declinator and Protestation might be read, which hee conceived they had promised after the Moderator should be chosen: but they rejected it againe, adding then, that the Assembly must be fully constituted of all it members, and bee once an Assembly, before any thing could be presented to it: To which it was answered by Our Commissioner, That hee required it onelyonly to be read, not to be discussed untill the members of the Assembly were constituted by allowing of their severall Commissions, because this Declinator contained reasons why either all, or at least some elected, should not be admitted Commissioners in the Assembly, because of the nullities of the elections expressed in the Declinator; which reasons containing the said nullities, might perswade (as they hoped) with them, for the rejecting their Commissions, which could not bee done after their approving and allowing of them, and so by vertue of these Commissions, admitting them for constituted members of the Assembly. The reason why Our Commissioner did so earnestly urge the reading of that Declinator, was, because he did fore-see the fallacie which they meant to use, viz. The Declinator cannot be read before the Assembly bee constituted; and they fearing that the Declinator contained reasons against the constitution of it by such members as were elected, and that after they were once admitted, it was too late to alledge any reasons; for then they were sure to answer, that all elections were discussed, and the members of the Assembly received, and therefore nothing then to bee heard against either; which indeed afterward was their very answer: There was nothing left here to Our Commissioner, but entring a Protestation as formerly, and solemnly calling themselves to witnesse, whether with any shew of justice the reading of the Bishops Protestation could bee denied before the elections were admitted, the principall aime of it being to shew reasons why they could not be admitted, wondering with what colour or face they (above all men) could doe it, who had read and published so many Protestations both against Our Proclamations and Acts of Our Councell; and so, how they could denie to Our Commissioner a thing required in Our name, and by Our authoritie, which they themselves had practised without any warrantie or authoritie at all: But all in vaine; for not the least resolution taken at Edinburgh must suffer any abatement: and therefore rejecting the reading of the Declinator, they first put by the Clerke of the Assembly his sonne, who by reason of his fathers sicknesse had a lawfull deputation from him, and whom (as it seemeth) they afterward wrought to a demission, and went on to the election of a new Clerke, whom without one contrarie voice they did chuse, viz. one Master Archibald Johnston an Advocate, the Clerke of their Tables at Edinburgh; against whose election Our Commissioner likewise protested as formerly. At his admission hee made a short speech, declaring (against his conscience) his unwillingnesse to accept that charge, but yet affirming, that at this time hee would not bee wanting to contribute his part towards the defence of the prerogative of the Sonne of God; as if that now had been in any danger.
The fourth day they begun the reading of the severall Commissions. Our Commissioner, as formerly, entred a Protestation to take exception against their elections, in his owne due time; onelyonly hee was content they should goe on, that he might see their justice in allowing or disallowing the elections, of which he knew many to be very untoward, and made with violence: Now the Reader is carefully to observe their partialitie in admitting or rejecting elections: for wheresoever there was a Non-covenanter chosen (of which number there were not above two or three) or any moderate Covenanter, not designed by them at Edinburgh, and chosen according to their secret instructions (with which the Reader shall afterward be made acquainted) them they either quite rejected, or suspended from voice, untill some exceptions made against their election should bee discussed; which they were sure should never bee done: as shall now appeare in these particulars.
When the Commission from the Presbyterie of Peebles was read, there was presently read a Protestation and Petition given in by a meane Minister of that Presbyterie, not against the election it selfe (for there did not appeare the least shew of exception against it when the Act of the Presbyterie was read) but against some violence pretended to be used by Our Lord Treasurer, who, being an inhabitant within the precincts of that Presbyterie, was present at the election: The petition was conceived in very boisterous and uncivil terms: The Lord Treasurer answered all that was pretended so fully, that not any one in the Assembly seemed to bee unsatisfied; there being not one election returned which was more punctually made, and that even according to their owne publique instructions: yet because the Commissioners elected, though Covenanters, were not the same who had been designed at Edinburgh, nor such as another Lord, dwelling in that Presbyterie, who was a Lay-Elder and Covenanter, had a mind to, the approbation of that Commission, and admission of these Commissioners most shamefully was put off and respited, untill that Petition and Protestation might be examined; and so it was continued from time to time, though it were often called upon: Our Commissioner told them, That sure there were none present, who did not admire at these proceedings; and that if the Petitioner failed in his probation (which afterward hee did, and asked pardon for it) hee deserved some exemplarie punishment to bee inflicted upon him, who had dared to traduce so great an Officer of State: In this particular it was too plain, that the poore Minister was onelyonly set on to present this Protestation for the reasons now declared.
After this, there arose a very hot contestation, concerning the election of the Lay-Elder for the Presbyterie of Brichen: The Earle of Montrose presented one Commission in which the Laird of Dunn was chosen Lay-Elder by the voyce of one Minister, and a few Lay-Elders: There was another Commission presented by that Presbyterie, in which was returned the Lord Carnaegie, lawfully chosen by the voyces of all the rest of the Ministers and Lay-Elders; yet because the Earle of Montrose did oppose the election of the Lord Carnaegie, though his owne brother in law, all the Covenanters in the Assembly sided with the Laird of Dunn, for whom the Earle of Montrose stood, both of them being rigid Covenanters, against the other Lord who was a Covenanter likewise, but a more moderate one. And indeed, it was a wonder to see how openly all rules of justice without any feare or shame, were laid aside in this particular; for though they did not approve the election of the Laird of Dunn, who wanted voyces to his election, yet they would not admit of the other, whose election admitted not the least scruple. In the agitation of this business, there fell out a memorable passage, of which the Covenanters were very much ashamed, because it betrayed one of their secret instructions, & it was this: There was written upon the back of that Commission which was tendered by the Lord Montrose, a Declaration wherein the lawfulnesse of that Commission, and the unlawfulnesse of the other was offered to be cleared, in which, among other things, it was objected against the Lord Carnaegie his election that it was made contrary to the directions of the Tables at Edinburgh; which the Clerk perceiving, stopped, and would read no further. Our Commissioner hereupon required the Moderatour to give him a copie or extract of that paper which was last read, and of the names of those who had subscribed to it, and that subscribed by the hand of the Clerk of the Assembly. The Moderatour absolutely refused it: Our Commissioner told him, that he desired it to help him in Our service, that by it he might bee the better informed how to proceed in his objecting against such Commissions as he meant to challenge: The Moderatour againe refused to doe it, alledging, that the challenged Declaration was but accidentally written on the backe of the Commission; Our Commissioner replyed, That could not be written privately or accidentally, which was given in publike to the Assembly, and that by a member of it, of so great place and quality, for a justification of his proceeding in that election; and withall protested, That though he were not Our Commissioner, but the meanest subject of the land, he could not in justice be denied the copie of any thing exhibited in a Court of justice. But all in vaine: for after much cavilling by the Moderatour and other covenanting Lords, Our Commissioner desiring the Moderator to put it to voyces whether he could be denied a copie of it; even that was refused him likewise, they being afraid, that the Assembly would not deny so notorious an act of justice: upon which Our Commissioner (though mildly, yet with some expression of distast) did thus deliver himselfe: Let God Almighty judge if this be a free Assembly, in which is denyed to his Majesties Commissioner that, which cannot be denyed to the meanest of his subjects; and at last, hee tooke instruments in the hands of Our Clerke of Register, that he was refused the copie of a Declarator given in to the Assembly, delivered into the Clerkes hands, and publikely read by him, in which, amongst other things, was contained, that the election of the Lord Carnaegie, Commissioner from Brichen, was invalid, as being contrarie to the directions of the Tables of the Commissioners at Edinburgh; which occasioned the Moderator to say, That Our Commissioner needed no copie of it, he had so faithfully repeated all that was contained in it: Our Commissioner hereupon, since he could not obtaine a copie of it, desired all present to be witnesses of what the Moderator had spoken, & that he had acknowledged his faithfull repetition of that part of the Declarator whereof he was refused the copie; and thereupon againe tooke instruments. In this businesse Sir Lewis Stuart, one of Our Assessors to Our Commissioner, spake some few words; which when the Moderator was about to answer, the Lord of Montrose forbid him to answer one who had no place to speake there: Afterward there arose a great contestation between the Earle of Southesk, one of Our Assessors, and the Moderator, with so much heat on the Moderators side, and some Lords who sided with him, that Our Commissioner was put to moderate the Moderator, and quench the heat of the Assembly; for which many of them gave Our Commissioner thankes, and so all businesse was continued till Munday.
On Munday, being the 5. day of their sitting, they went on in the rest of the controverted elections, refusing to heare the Lord Carnaegie his election discussed, but putting it off to a Committee: Master Andrew Logie Minister of Red, but a Non-covenanter, being returned a Commissioner from the Presbyterie of Garrioche, was refused to be admitted, though they laid not the least exception against his election: their pretence was, There was a Petition presented against him to the Assembly, and no voice must be allowed him, untill he had answered that: A very easie device for putting by any Commissioner whom they liked not, since it was no hard matter to find one to present a Petition against any man. Another Minister of the Channery of Rosse, and Archdeacon of Rosse, one Master William Mackeinzey, Commissioner from the Presbyterie of the Channery, upon certaine cavills both of his election and commission, which did beare, that he should continue there no longer then Wee or Our Commissioner should continue the Assembly, because the sole power of calling and dissolving of Assemblies did belong to Us, for the present was onelyonly suspended from his voice; the reason was plaine, he was a Non-covenanter, and had openly averred in the Assembly, that at their election the Ministers of their Presbyterie were threatned by those who brought Letters from the Tables, if they should returne the election of any, but such as they, who brought the Letters, desired. Two elections were returned from the Presbyterie of Aberdene, One of Covenanters, made by a few Ministers, but many Lay-Elders, at which neither the Moderatour nor the Clerke of the Presbyterie were present; Another of Non-covenanters, which election was made onelyonly by Ministers, and at which the Moderatour and Clerke were both present; yet that other election, at the returne whereof there wanted the Clerkes hand, (without which no Presbyteriall Act can bee taken for a Record) was allowed, and the other rejected, upon the bare relation of one of the Covenanting Ministers who was returned wrongfully, and the attestation of the other whom the Moderatour openly in the Assembly called up and desired to testifie whether the relation of his fellow was true: an excellent way of proofe against a publique Record, to take the testimonie of one who was as wrongfully returned as the Relator.
The Universitie of Aberdene sent none of their Professors to the Assembly, not daring to trust themselves upon the way, having been so much threatned with the losse of their lives for writing against the Covenant: OnelyOnly they sent one of their number, no Divine, but a Professor of Humanitie, to excuse their absence; his Commission being read, gave him onelyonly power to be there, and did constitute him their Agent in any thing which should concerne their Universitie; requiring him to continue there, and from time to time to give them advertisement of all that passed. The Moderatour did justly affirme, That that was no Commission, the party having no power by it to give any voice in the Assembly, and so there was no more to be said to it: but immediately something being transmitted by whispering from eare to eare, untill it came to the Moderatours eare, the Moderatour begun presently to recant, and perusing his letter of credence, said, hee perceived that there was onelyonly want of formalitie in the draught, which they might easily passe over; and so they allowed that for a Commission which was none, and admitted him to have a voice in the Assembly, though the Universitie gave him no such power, nor would they have sent any Commissioner but a Divine. At this sudden change of the Moderatour, made in him by a whisper, many begun to smile, and to lay wagers that the party admitted was a Covenanter, which the Moderatour did not expect from that Universitie, and that this secretly-conveyed intelligence of it had changed him; and indeed afterward it proved to be so.
And thus the members of their Assembly were constituted, just as they had designed them; at which they were mightily over-joyed, being now assured, that they might conclude what they pleased: And although it might in common reputation have better suited with the principles of wisedome, not to have taken exceptions against these few elections, which were made contrarie to their directions (for thereby they had gained the opinion of impartialitie▪ and had lost nothing of their power, those few voices not being able to carrie any thing against their great number) yet such was their blind obstinacie, that they scorned that any one should sit there who runne not their rebellious courses, as holding it a dis-reputation to them if they should be thought to have abated any thing, not onelyonly of their power but even of their will. Besides, not onelyonly their peevishnesse, but even their pride appeared notably in one particular: Wee, in Our Letters to the Assembly, had nominated for Assessors to Our Commissioner these sixe: The Earle of Traquair Lord Treasurer, the Earle of Roxburgh Lord Privie-Seale, the Earle of Argyle, the Earle of Lauderdaile, the Earle of Southesk, Lords of Our Privie Councell, and Sir Lewis Stuart an Advocate, a farre fewer number then ever Our royall Father called to assist any of his Commissioners; all which ever constantly had voices in the Assembly; But here, though these sixe suffrages were able to doe nothing against their minds; yet because they would be sure to clip the wings of Authoritie, they absolutely refused to let them have any voice at all, telling Our Commissioner, That he might consult with these Assessors if he pleased, but that they were to have no voice in the Assembly: affirming, with incredible impudence, That if We Our Selfe were there, We should have but one voice, and that not negative neither, nor more affirmative then any one member of the Assembly had: by which meanes they have published to the World this sweet and wholsome doctrine, That their King in their Ecclesiasticall Assembly hath no more power then any Towne-Clerke, Taylor, or Sadler who shall sit as a Lay-Elder there: which desperate opinion of theirs, doth plainly shew the reason why in their last publique instructions preceding the Assembly, they ordered, That every Lay-Elder from Presbyteries should come attended with three or foure, and every Commissioner from Burrowes with five or sixe of their owne ranke and qualitie, who should continue with them all the time of the Assembly, without whose advice they should not give voice to any thing; a thing never heard of at any generall Assembly before. Sure they had heard and knew the number & names of the Assessors, whom Wee had appointed to assist Our Commissioner; and therefore they would have every mechanicall Artizan, chosen a Lay-Elder for the Assembly, (whom they held to have equall power with Us in it) to carrie the same badge of power and state with Us, and to have their Assessors as well as We, and those equall in number to Ours, and the same power with Ours, of consulting, though not concluding: All which, whether royall Majestie and supreme Soveraigntie can or ought to digest, any reasonable man may judge.
The Assembly being just now the same thing which the Tables were at Edinburgh in substance, but in condition far worse (for here were none now but the most obstinate Covenanters, whom the severall Tables had picked out of all the packe) and they meeting at the Towne-house of Glasgow alwayes before they met at the Church (the place of the Assembly) the Moderator being the same materially who governed them at Edinburgh, though not so formally chosen as now; the Clerke of the Assembly being the same, who was Clerke to their Covenant and to their Tables at Edinburgh; the members of the Assembly being the same who sate at their Tables there, and those the most corrupted and distempered of them all: who could now expect lesse insolent conclusions from this Assembly, then they had found from their Tables?
And indeed the very same were found: For immediately they bragged that now they were a constituted Assembly, and resolved to laugh at any who should quarrell with the elections which they had approved; and especially at the Bishops Declinator, if it should containe any arguments to that purpose. The first Cocke who begun to crow upon this dunghill, though it were within night, no ordinarie time of crowing, was Master Andrew Ramsey a Minister of Edinburgh, who, getting up upon a stoole or fourme, made a very great bragge, offering by dispute to prove against any man the lawfulnesse of lay Elders, by Scripture, Antiquitie, Fathers, Councels, the judgement of all the Reformed Churches, even of the Church of England, who admitted them into the High Commission. Our Commissioner seeing him crowd so much in a very little room, told him that he runne no great hazzard or danger in his challenge; for he was sure the Judges would bee his seconds: yet if it pleased him, hee would find one should enter into the Lists with him, either publiquely or privately, upon that quarrell; but many of his brethren were not very well pleased with his glorious challenge, as making accompt that hee would never bee able to make good the greatest part of it: And with this bragge the Assembly dissolved for that night.
The next day, being the 27. of November, after the Assembly was met, Our Commissioner urged once againe that the Bishops Declinator might bee read; which was accordingly done by the Clerke of the Assembly. It was entertained with much jeering and laughter, and by transmission of a whisper from one eare to another, they resolved when it was read out to have received it with a generall hissing; but yet by another generall whisper, transmitted as the former, that course was stopped. After it was ended, Our Commissioner spake home to them, for the necessitie of that Declinator, and the unavoidable strength of the reasons contained in the same, and in depressing, by way of parallel, their Libell against the Bishops: which hee spared not to call infamous and scurrillous, both in the matter of it, and the manner of promulging it; and hereupon tooke instruments in Our Clerke of Registers hands, both for the production and reading of the Declinator. Some of the Lords of the Assembly offered to doe the like in the Clerk of the Assemblies hands, but Our Commissioner told him it was needlesse, since it was not tendered to the Assembly but to himselfe: First, the Moderatour in a short speech deplored the obstinacie of the Bishops hearts, who in all that Declinator had bewrayed no signe of remorse and sorrow for their wicked courses▪ and then the Lords of the Assembly perceiving their errour, that they who found themselves to bee Judges, had offered to take instruments in the Clerkes hands of the production of any exhibits (which was never heard to bee done by the Judge, but onelyonly by the actor or plaintiffe) prompted some young Noblemen, and Gentlemen Covenanters (but not members of the Assembly) then present, to demand instruments of the production of the Bishops Declinator; in whose name one Gibson, one of the Clerkes of Our Session (and so acquainted with Law termes) both demanded instruments, and thundered out a verball Protestation, in such Law termes as was not easie to be understood by most of the auditors: The summe of what was understood, was this, That they would pursue their Libell against the Bishops so long as they had lives and fortunes, etiam in foro contentiosissimo, and required Doctor Hammilton their Proctor then present, to take notice that they cyted him to compeere die in diem till sentence were given. Our Commissioner first protested against that Protestation, and then discharged the Bishops Proctor from appearance before the Assembly, to which he had presented no Declinator; but required him to appeare before himselfe, to whom it was presented, when he should require him: The Declinator of the Bishops here insueth.