GIFT, WHIT Edinburgh. The king was then upon his progress to JedAbp. Cant, burgh, for quieting some disturbances in the borders. The earls of Angus, Huntley, and Errol, met his majesty on the way at Falaw, begged they might be brought to their trial, and referred the time and place to his majesty's pleasure. Upon this, by the advice of the council, they were ordered to go to Perth, and stay there till the prosecution was ready. The Kirk petitions the this matter. When this was known, the assembly sent commissioners king touching to the king, to desire the trial of these popish lords might be put off to a longer time; that, by this means, the professors of religion, who intend to bring in a charge of treason against them, may have time to examine the business, and resolve upon a proper expedient. Secondly. That, according to the customary proceedings in such cases, those excommunicated and treasonable apostates, as the Kirk express themselves, may be committed to safe custody, in Edinburgh, Dundee, and Stirling, till the estates shall have settled the circumstances of the trial. Thirdly. That the jury may not be nominated at the suggestion of the prisoners, but by the prosecutors, professors of the Gospel. Fourthly. That the criminals above-mentioned, being excommunicated by the Church, and cut off from the society of Christ's body, may not be admitted to their trial, or have the benefit of law, till they are reconciled to the Church. Fifthly. If his majesty is unalterably resolved not to change the time or place of their trial, they then desire that such as profess religion may be admitted for a guard to his majesty, to defend his person from violence, and to prosecute the criminals to the utmost: which they are fully determined to do, though at the hazard of all their lives. The king, at the reading the title of the address, was somewhat displeased. He told them, that since the assembly had met without his consent, he would not own them in the quality of commissioners. But, notwithstanding he refused to treat them under that character, he condescended to hear them as subjects. And, to give satisfaction, he acquainted them, that the time and place for the trial of these lords was assigned by the advice of the council; that, BETH. upon further considering the matter, he found the time too ELIZAshort, and the town of Perth not so convenient, and therefore had appointed a meeting of the states at Linlithgow, by whose advice he should govern this affair; that, since these noblemen were brought to their trial at the request of their ministers, he was somewhat surprised they should now address him for delaying it; and, lastly, he assured them care would be taken that the judges and jury should be persons unbiassed, and well affected to religion. arms. The commissioners reported the king's answer to their They order the subjects principals. The assembly, being unpleased, made a resolve to meet, and to prosecute the lords, and to appear in arms at the place appear in assigned for the trial. To this purpose, some of the members stayed at Edinburgh to give notice to the rest. The king being informed of this resolution, sent for the ministers that were in town, and put them in mind how grossly they 642. had failed in their duty, by presuming to draw the subjects together in arms without his authority, and charged them not to execute any thing of that kind. To this they returned a canting, rebellious answer, in these words: "That it was the cause of God, and in defence thereof they could not be deficient." Upon this the king issued out a proclamation, to forbid all persons meeting in arms. king's pro Notwithstanding this proclamation, great numbers came And refuse to Edinburgh, where the estates were convened, and the to obey the people began to rise in all other parts of the country. The clamation. trial of the popish lords was referred to a committee of the estates, who had likewise an authority to conclude upon an expedient for the preservation of religion, and quieting the disorders in the kingdom; and that their decision was to have the same force as if it had been made by the parliament. Several of the ministers likewise had the liberty to sit with the committee if they pleased: but then their business was only, as far as it appears, to suggest and argue, but not to vote with the rest. The committee, after a long debate, Articles agreed upon several heads. I shall mention only some of them : agreed on by the committee of the First. That such as have not yet professed the reformed states at Edinburgh, religion, or deserted it, should conform before the 1st of with respect February next, give satisfaction, and submit to the orders Catholics. to the Roman WHIT appointed them by the king and the Church. And, in case GIFT, Abp. Cant. they pretended scruple of conscience, they should quit the realm, and transport themselves to such countries as his majesty should appoint, and not return home till they resolved to turn Protestants, and satisfy the Church; and that during their banishment, themselves and their heirs should enjoy their estates, and have the liberty of constituting proxies or attorneys, to defend their right, and appear for them in courts of justice. That the earls above-mentioned, and others of that persuasion, should neither dispute, nor allow any disputing, at their tables against the reformed religion; that they should entertain a minister in their houses, admit of conferences for disentangling them from their errors, and that they may be the better prepared to subscribe the confession of faith. That such of them as make it their choice to depart the country, rather than conform to the religion established, shall give security to forbear entering into any concert with Jesuits and others against religion and the state; and that they should keep no such correspondence before they emId. p. 400. bark. June 3, 1594. Bishop Ailmer's death. Life of Bishop Ailmer. And, lastly, that in the mean time the Church shall convent all suspected persons before them, and demand satisfaction; and, in case they prove obstinate, delate their names to the king and council; and that masters and landlords shall be obliged to answer for persons under their charge and jurisdiction. To return to England, where the next thing that occurs is, the death of John Ailmer, bishop of London. He died in the seventy-third year of his age, and was buried at St. Paul's. He was descended from an ancient and considerable family of the Ailmers, of Ailmer-hall, in Norfolk. They pretend to a Saxon original, and claim a relation to the Ailmers, earls of Devonshire and Cornwall, before the Conquest. A younger branch of the family transported themselves into Ireland, where they intermarried with the Fitzgeralds; and one of them was lord chief justice of the King's Bench in the reign of king Henry VIII. As to the bishop, he was a person of learning and resolution, governed BETH. with vigour, and was strict in requiring conformity. Part ELIZA of his character, which has been touched already, is comprehended in these two verses upon his monument :— “Ter senos annos præsul; semel exul, et idem He was succeeded by Richard Fletcher, bishop of Wor cester. The latter end of August, this year, prince Henry, the king of Scots' eldest son, was baptized with great solemnity. The sacrament was administered by Cunningham, bishop of Aberdeen. and cha This summer, William Reynolds, an eminent Roman William Reynolds, Catholic divine, departed this life. He was extracted from his death a wealthy family at Pinhoe, in Devonshire. His uncle, racter. Jerome Reynolds, doctor in divinity, took some care of his education at first. He was afterwards sent to Winchesterschool, from thence to New-college, in Oxford, where he appeared a promising genius, and made a considerable proficiency in most parts of learning. He went in with the Reformation at first, and continued in our communion several years; but, it seems, bishop Jewel's works, which fixed a great many other people, unsettled Reynolds. He fancied this prelate did not manage the argument fairly, and that his reasonings were loose and inconclusive. He went to Rome upon this dissatisfaction, and reconciled himself to that Church; and, having travelled through the greatest parts of Italy and France, he settled at Rheims, where cardinal Allen gave him a friendly entertainment, and made him divinity and Hebrew professor in the English college. He overfatigued himself with study, which occasioned the breaking a vein, and hastened his end. Pitts reports him a poet, an orator, an historian; that he had skill in music and mathematics; that he was a philosopher, a linguist, and an eminent divine. To mention some of his works: he addressed a tract upon the holy eucharist to the king of Scots, against one Bruce, a Scotch minister. He wrote another discourse in defence of the Rhemish translation of the New Testament, against Dr. Whittaker, divinity pro Abp. Cant. WHIT fessor at Cambridge; and, at the instance of the heads of GIFT, the Holy League in France, he published an ill discourse to justify the arms of the Leaguers against the government. And, to mention only one more, he wrote a book by way of dialogue, entitled "Calvino Turcismus." This book, though left imperfect at his death, was afterwards finished and Illust. Angl. printed by his friend, William Gifford, who dedicated it to Albert, archduke of Austria. Pitts de Scriptor. Cardinal Allen, his His patron, cardinal Allen, died about two months after. death, &c. He was descended from a gentleman's family in Lancashire, bred in Oxford, and was principal of St. Mary's-hall. When the Reformation came on, he retired to Douay, in Flanders, where he studied divinity, and was made professor in that faculty. This Allen was the first who drew the English refugees together, and formed them into an academical society at Douay and Rheims. Here their capacities were examined, their business prescribed, and their posts assigned them. Some of them engaged the Protestants in print, and spent their time in controversial divinity; others collected memoirs upon the persecution of their friends in Eng643. land, and digested the accounts they received into a kind of martyrology. Allen had a considerable share in maintaining the doctrine of his Church. He wrote several tracts, too long to mention. It must be granted, his merits, with respect to his own communion, ran high, for which he was created a cardinal by Sextus Quintus. His death was much regretted by the Roman Catholics: for, besides the services of his pen, he kept the English Papists from breaking out into misunderstandings, and made up the differences between the secular priests and Jesuits. Idem. A misunder But this accommodation was of but short continuance ; standing for after Allen's death, the priests and religious confined in seculars and Wisbeach-castle came to an open rupture. The occasion between the Jesuits in castle. Declaratio was this one father Weston, alias Edmunds, a Jesuit, pretended to make orders, and set up for governor over all the rest; and to conceal his ambition, he gave out this authority was forced upon him by Henry Garnett, the English tionum, &c. provincial. But those of his own society who resigned to his pretensions were misled, as some say, by the counterfeit sanctity of the Jesuits, by large shares in the division of et Perturba ad Clem. Octav. cxhibita. |