An Epitome, Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
I Goe on now to another, and he ſhall be all that I will inſiſt on; namely, Dr. Neale, then Prelate of Wincheſter. To follow a wiſe man, is almoſt to be wiſe, He laid about him extreamly (as my Relator tells) with this Preface proteſting, that although he had lived ſixty and odd years; and had obſerved paſſages of State theſe fifty years.
— Animus conſtantior annis.
He might be a pretry States-man of 12 or 14 yeares of Age: But to the point, he ſaid, he had never heard, nor ſeen all that time ſuch a vile Book, preferring it to Baalams Aſſe, Martin Mar-Prelate, Ʋdals Book, and all the reſt; and wondered, that ſuch a Traytor, as I, was ſuffered to live And for his Calling, he proteſted he had it from the Holy Ghoſt, and if he could not make it good, he would fling his Rochet and all the reſt from his back, yea that would he. With that he marſhalled up againſt me, many Latine Sentences which I take (under favour) Nam, de mortuis &c. he had learned ſince he came to be Prelate of Dureſme; for being there in the Common-School, and checking the School-Maſter for his ſeverity, inſtancing the prejudice that came to children thereby, from his own experience, when he was a Scholler of Weſtminſter School, he ſaid (in the hearing of a reverend man yet alive, beſides others, there preſent) that the ſaid School-Maſter was never off his breech, by which he became ſo very a Dunce, that untill that hour he could never make a right Latine Theam. After he had given me many blowes and vented his choller, he came into a better mood; namely; of praying for me, that if I were not as Symon Magus, he prayed God to forgive me; with that a Lawyer not able to forbear laughing asked another that ſtood by, if ever he heard before, that it was a ſinne againſt the Holy Ghoſt to write againſt the B B…. Thus I hope I have not wronged any of them in relating of their ſpeeches, for a right honeſt and judicious man took them; and as he ſent me them, ſo have I delivered them. As for the Lords and others, I have little or nothing to ſay; for ſurely it may be thought, that the moſt of them were rather paſſive, than active, in ſo black a doome. The Commemoration whereof by way of Petition, to the honourable Houſe of Parliament, one that was at the Cenſure, being now a Member of the houſe watered his cheeks with tears. I heard that the L. Ʋ Ʋ …ntworth (afterwards Earl of Strafford) uſed many violent and virulent expreſſions againſt me: but it was no wonder for he and his ghoſtly Father the Prelate, were upon the way of a more dangerous conjunction; the ill effects whereof, the three Kingdomes have felt, and when they ſhall have an end the Lord only knoweth. A man of eminent quality told me, that the Book and my Sufferings did occaſion their combination: for the Prelate ſeeing, that the Book ſtrucke at the root and branch of the Hierarchy, and Strafford perceived that the ſupport and defence of the Hierarchy would make him Great; they ſtruck a League like Sun and Moon, to govern Day and Night, Religion and State. And if others ſhould be terrified by my dreadfull…ſufferings; then they might trample on their Eſtates, their Necks, Bodies, and Soules, and make them the moſt Artificiall ſlaves, under the Sun (which are worſe then naturall ſlaves) but if any ſhould ſtand up for the truth, they meant ſo exquiſitly to torture them (as they did indeed) that all that feared the Lord) (though to their great woe and griefe) ſhould quit the Land, and give all for loſt: and this they had brought to an high pitch; but bleſſed be the Lord of Hoſts, who hath cut their cords, and delivered poor ſoules from the ſnare of the Hunter.