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Dr. Laud.

RuthwortliVColl. Part Is.Vol. II. Appen-dix p. 118.

THE LIFE OF

u marrying of the Lady upon the Place; if he found it otherwise, to put his" Father and himself at Liberty, to dispose of himself in some other Place." That the Ambassador, in whose Hands that great Affair was solely ma-" nag’d, when, in one Dispatch, he writ, that all was concluded ; in the" next, used to give an Account of new Difficulties, and new Demands;" and when all Things were adjusted at Madrid, some unexpected Scruples" discovered themselves at Rome, with which the Councils in Spain feem’d" to be furpriz’d, and appear'd to be confounded, and not to know what to" fay. These Ebbs and Floods made the Prince apprehend, that the Pur-" pose was to amuse us, whilst they had other Designs in secret Agitation." And thereupon, that his Highness had prevail’d with his Father, (how un-" willing soever) to permit him to make the Journey, that he might make" that useful Discovery, which could not otherwise be made in any seasonable" Time.

" That they no sooner came to Madrid, then they discover’d (though the" Prince was treated with all the Respect due to his Greatness, and the Obli-" gation he had laid on that Nation) that there had never been any real" Purpose that the Infanta should be given to him: That, during so long" an Abode as his Royal Highness made there, they had never procur’d the" Dispensation from Rome, which they might easily have done : And that at" last, upon the Death of the Pope, Gregory XV. the whole Process was to" begin again, and would be transacted with the Formalities, which they" should find necessary to their other Affairs.”

What next follows in the Duke’s Relation, confirms and illustrates thewife conduct of Dr. Wren, under the Divine Affiance, in the Guardianship ofthe Prince’s Conscience, by his Royal Highness’ s Defence, and steady Main-tenance of his Religion, against all the most strenuous Attacks of the Church ofRome. " Instead of Proceeding (continues the Duke) upon the Articles," which had been pretended to be concluded, they urged nothing but new“ Demands; and in Matters of Religion so peremptorily, that the principal" Clergymen, and the most. eminent of that King’s Preachers, had frequent“ Conferences with the Prince, to perfwade him to change his Religion, and" become a Papist. And in order to move him the more successfully there-“ unto, they procur’d the Pope to write a Letter himself to his Highness, put-" ting him in mind of the Religion of his Ancestors and Progenitors, and" conjuring him to return to the fame Faith ; but that it had pleas’d God not“ only to give the Prince a constant and unshaken Heart in his Religion," but such wonderful Abilities to defend the fame in his Discourses and Argu-“ ments, that they stood amaz'd to hear him, and upon the Matter, confejs'd,“ that they were ?iot able to answer him," &c.

In further Illustration of that Part of the Duke of Buckingham's Speech tothe two Houses of Parliament, relating the Prince’s great Abilities in De-fence of his Religion, to the immortal Honour of himself, and Commen-dation of his spiritual Guide, a Passage in a Speech deliver’d in the Star-Chamber, by the Arch-bistiop of Canterbury, June 16, 1637, at the Censureof Bastwick, Prynne, and Burton, (for infamous libelling) is proper to beobserv’d.

“ For his Majesty—this I know, and upon this Occasion take it my Duty to" speak : There is no Prince in Christendom more sincere in his Religion, nor“ more constant to it than the King. And he gave such a Testimony of this," at his being in Spam, as I much doubt, whether the best of that [Puritan]“ Faction durst have done half so much as his Majesty did, in the Face of" that Kingdom, And this, you my Lord the Earl of Holland, and other

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