СНАР. CHAPTER XXIII. Accession and Marriage of Charles I.-First Parliament.— Petition against Popery.-Quinquarticular Controversy brought before the House of Commons.-Montague's Appello Cæsarem.-The King expresses his Displeasure at the House of Commons, and dissolves the Parliament-Second Parliament.-House of Commons appoints a Committee of Religion, who renew Proceedings against Montague.-Sibthorpe and Mainwaring's Sermons.-Suspension of Abbot. -Third Parliament.-Speeches in the House of Commons against Popery and Arminianism.-Parliament dissolved.— King's Visit to Scotland and Coronation.-His Attempt to bring the Scottish Kirk to an Uniformity with the English Church. His Return to England.-Death of Abbot.— Succession of Laud. CHARLES the First succeeded to his father's dominions at the age of twenty-five years. He was born in Scotland, and baptized by a presbyterian minister of that country; but as soon as his father came to England, he placed his infant son under the superintendence of those divines who were attached to the church of England. Charles, being a younger brother, was not educated in the expectation of inheriting a crown; and when, by the death of his brother Henry, he became the heir apparent, his original education was not completed. Removed from the authority of his preceptors, he was consigned to the duke of Buckingham. In that nobleman he found a seductive and dangerous companion, although the companion was selected by his father. When he succeeded to the throne, and had abandoned the course A. D. 1625. of dissipation which he had eagerly pursued under the direction of his favourite, he followed the paternal example, by admitting the pander to his plea- Charles I. sures as the guide of his councils. No small part of the misfortunes of Charles may be traced to his early connexion with the duke of Buckingham. Immediately on his accession, and before the solemnity of his father's funeral, he married Hen, rietta Maria, daughter of Henry the Fourth, and sister of Louis the Thirteenth, the reigning king of France. The treaty of marriage had been agreed on during the life of the late king, and the articles signed. By this contract the princess was allowed the free exercise of her religious opinions, and, which was more dangerous, the education of all her children, till they had attained the age of thirteen years. The marriage was first solemnized at Paris by the king's proxy, according to the ritual of the church of Rome, and, secondly, at Canterbury, according to the liturgy of the church of England. The queen brought to England a bishop of the Romish church, and a long train of priests and of monastics, for whose use a chapel was prepared in the king's palace at Saint James's. Next to the early influence of the duke of Buckingham, the marriage of Charles with this princess was the cause of his final ruin, and it was at the time supposed to be a greater judgment on the nation than the plague, which was then raging throughout the land *. The personal attractions of the queen were great, and her love of intrigue was ardent. * Bishop Kennet, Hist. Eng. XXIII. CHAP. Considering the malignity of the Romish religion, the despotic nature of the French monarchy, the power of a beautiful princess over an uxorious husband, and, above all, considering the trust which was confided to her of educating her children, it was not difficult to foresee the dangers impending over the liberties of England. The queen was devoted to her religion even to bigotry, her conscience was in the custody of her confessor, assisted by the papal nuncio, and a secret cabal of priests and Jesuits. Her first demand, that the solemnity of her coronation should be performed by the bishops of the church of Rome, was properly refused, and her rigid adherence to it would not suffer her to join in the ceremonial of the English church. She appeared, therefore, only as a distant observer of that interesting and significant rite, and displayed marks of levity on the occasion, which were not calculated to raise her in the estimation of the people. At the accession of Charles, the government of the kingdom, in all its branches, was managed by the privy council, the star-chamber, and the court of high commission. The privy-council constituted the efficient legislature, its proclamations and orders being the rule of law and the measure of obedience. Though there was not a single parliamentary statute enacted in twelve years, yet in that time there were not less than two hundred and fifty proclamations, every one of which had a legal force, and bound the subject under the severest penalties. The star-chamber was, in effect, the same court with the privy council, being com posed of the same persons, sitting in different rooms, and in different capacities *. They were both become courts of law to determine rights, and courts of revenue to bring money into the exchequer. The privy council, by its proclamations, enjoined that which was not enjoined by law, and the star-chamber punished disobedience to the proclamations of the council. The court of high commission had also overflowed the banks which should have restrained it, not only by interfering in matters beyond its cognizance, but in passing sentences and judgments contrary to law. From an ecclesiastical court, instituted for the reformation of manners, it was grown into a court of revenue for the imposition of arbitrary and excessive fines. The commissioners, not satisfied with the business which was brought before them, sent their commissaries throughout the whole kingdom, to superintend the proceedings of the consistorial courts in the several diocesses. If a bishop were supposed to be negligent in his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he was frequently cited before the court of high commission, to answer for his remissness. The court frequently detained men in prison during many months, without bringing the prisoners to trial, or even acquainting them with the reasons of their confinement. A. D. 1625, Charles I. The first parliament of Charles assembled with no favourable disposition either towards the court or the hierarchy. The king, having, in his speech, June 18. solicited the assistance of the two houses for the recovery of the palatinate, assured them that * Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. v. p. 71. XXIII. CHAP. though his religion had been suspected, yet no one was more desirous of maintaining the protestant religion than himself. The parliament returned thanks to the king for his gracious communication; but the house of commous, before it entered on any other business, presented a list of grievances. Among others, it set forth the causes of the increase of popery, with the proper remedies. The causes were, the want of a due execution of the penal laws; the interposition of foreign powers in favour of papists; their influx into the metropolis, and their frequent conferences and conventicles there; their open resort to the chapels of foreign ambassadors; the education of their children in foreign seminaries; the want of protestant education in several parts of the kingdom; the unrestrained licence of popish books; and the employment of men disaffected to the protestant religion in the highest places of government *. The king, in his answer to each grievance, gave a promise of redress, which it was too well known that his other engagements would not suffer him to fulfil. By his marriage articles he had engaged to set all Roman catholics at liberty; and, in consequence, had ordered the lord-keeper to direct the judges, and other magistrates, to forbear all proceedings against his subjects of that persuasion; it being his royal pleasure that there should be a cessation of all those penalties to which they were liable, by any statutes or ordinances of the realm. When, therefore, the king, in compliance with the parliamentary petition, directed the archbishop of * Rushworth's Collections. |