Chap. III. The HISTOkYof the PURITANS. 507 " in the land ; for confidering the malignityof the popifh religion, the K. Charles I. " imperioufnefs of the French government, the influence of a ftatelyqueen stbv " over an affectionate hufband, and the (hare the mutt needs have in the " education 'of her children, [till thirteen years of age] it was then eafy " to forefee it might prove very fatal to our Englifh princeand people, and " lay in a vengeance to future generations." The queen was a very great bigot to her religion; her confcience was directed by her confeffor, affifted by the pope's nuncio, and a fecret cabal of priefts and jefuits. Thefe con- trouled the queen, and the the king; fo that in effect the nation was go- verned by popifh councils, till the long parliament. The prime minifter under the king was G. VILLIERS duke of Buck- ff eukke of ingham, a graceful young gentleman but very unfit for his high Ration, ng- He had a full poffeffion of the king's heart, infomuch that his tnajefty ham' broke meafures with all his parliaments for his fake. " 1Vlof men (lays Clarendon, " lord Clarendon) imputed all the calamities of the nation to his arbi- " trary councils; fo that few were difpleafed at the news of his murder by P. 37 " Felton, in the year 1628. when he was not above thirty-four years of " age." Upon the duke's death, Dr. WILLIAM LAUD then bifhop of London, Arcbbiibop became the chief minifter both in church and Rate. He was born at Read- Laud; ing, and educated in St. yohn's College Oxford, upon the charitable do- nation of Mr. White, founder of Merchant Taylor's School. Here he con- tinued till he was fifty years of age, and behaved in fuch a manner, that no body knew what tothink of him. " I would I knew (lays the pious " bifhop Hall in one of his letters) where to find you ; to day you are with the Romani/Is, to-morrow with us; our adverfaries think you ours, " and we theirs; yourconfcience finds you with both and neither : How " long will you halt in this indefferency ì" Dr. Assoc Pays : " He fpent Rufhw.Vol. his time in picking quarrels with the lectures of publick readers, and I P. 44°. " giving advice to the then bifhopof Durham, that he might fill the ears " of the king [tames I.] with prejudices againft honeft men, whom he " called puritans." Heylin confeffes, it was thought dangerous to keep him company. By the interef of bifhop Williams, he was firs advanced to a Welch bifhoprick, and from thence by degrees to the higheft prefer- ments in church and Rate. He was a little man, of a quick and rough Clarendon, temper, impatient of contradiction even at the council table, of arbitrary Vol. I. principles both in church and Rate, always enclined to methods of P 97' 98. feverity, efpecially againft the puritans; vaftly fond of external pomp and ceremony in divine worfhip; and though he was not an abfolute papift, he was ambitious of being the fovereign patriarch of three king doms. T t t z Lord
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