?he HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. Y. Queen life ofthe lord treafurer and his own ; and that the chief confpirator was Elizabeth, one Undertree, encouraged by the great earl ofLeicefter The old archbi- fhop was almoft frightened out of his wits at the news, as appears by the followingpaflage in his letter to the treafurer ; " This horrible confpiracy " (fays he) has fo allonifhed me, that my will and memory are quite gone; I would I were dead before I fee with mycorporal eyes, that which is now brought to a full ripenefs. " He then prays, that the deteétor of this confpiracy, may be proteéted and honóurably confidered, and the con- fpirators punìfhed with the utmoft feverity, otherwife the end would be worfe than the beginning. And that he might not feem to exprefs all this concern for his own fafety, he tells the treafurer, That it was for his fake and the queen's that he was fo jealous, " for he feared, that when rogues ' attempted to deftroy thofe that were fo near her majefty's perlon, they " would at Taft make the fame attempt upon her too ; and that even Tome " that lay in her bofom [Leiceer] when oportunity ferved, would fling her. " The archbilhop tent out his fcouts, to apprehend the confpirators that hisfeeward had named, who pretended a fecret correfpondence with Undertree ; and among others who were taken into cuftody, were the re- verend Mr. Bonham, Brown, and Standen, divinesof great name among the puritans : Standen had been one of the preachers to the queen's army, when the earl of Warwick was fent againft the northern rebels. Manyper- lons of honour were allo accufed, as the earls of Bedford, Leice/ier, and others. But when Undertree came to be examined before the council, the whole appeared to be a (ham, between Undertree and the archbifhop's fëward, to difgrace the puritans, and punifh them as enemies to the Hate, as well as the church. So early was the vile praáice of fathering (ham plots upon the puritans begun, which was repeated fo often in the next age. Undertree had forged letters in the names of Bonham, Standen, and others ; as appeared to ademonftration when they were produced before Life of Par- the council, for they were all written with one hand. When he was ex- eer, p. 466. amined about his accomplices, he would accule no body, but took the wholeupon himfelf ; fo that their honours wrote immediately to the arch - bifhop, to difcharge hisprifoners. But, which is a little unaccountable, neither Undertree nor the archbifhop's fieward, received any punifhment. Parker de- His grace's reputation fufferedby this plot; all impartial men cried out fends his con- againft him, for (hutting upmen ofcharaóter and reputation in prifon, upon duét in the fuch idle reports. The puritans and their friends refleEìed upon his honour 1tot. and honefty; and in particular the bithopof London, and Dr. Chatterton ma- iler of queen's college, Cambridge, whom in his wrath hecalled a chatterer; and in his letter toGrindal archbifhopof York, Paid, "That hecared not three " chips for ought that could be proved as to his allegiance; he doing it to fe- " cretly, faithfully, and prudently, as he did; and would do the fame again, if
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