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it was never once so much as mention’d, or any way intimated to theirLordships that any rigorous Dealing in Matters ecclesiastical in that Diocese,were the Cause or the Occasion thereof. And this Defendant hopeth to prove,that of many Hundreds of those that went into Holland in those Times, theythen taking their Oaths before the King’s OfHcers, and declaring the Cause oftheir going, not one of them all did once mention any of those Things, whichin this Article are pretended: but very many of them answered, that theywent to work on their Trades there, and to increase their Skill, and to getbetter Means of living.
And indeed what needed they to go thither, for any Proceedings ecclesias-tical here (had that been the true Cause,) when as it had been a far shorterJourney, and easier for poor Workmen, but to have removed into some otherDiocese? And if any of the wealthier Sort (such as did set an Hundred onwork) went away only for that, why did they not rather appeal ? Seeingthey might have had an Inhibition (for 7 or 8 s.) which would presently havetied up the consistory Court, no Sentence whereof was to be in force, till that(after fifteen Days) the Parties themselves did by their own Default in not ap-pealing, confirm the same. The meaner fort therefore went chiefly for Gains,and Means of Life: the abler Sort might also be led away by that, whichwas operative in any Diocese, as in the Diocese of Norwich (excepting alwaysto Norwich Diocese a better Opportunity of sudden and easy flipping over ;)and that was the utter Dislike of all Church Government, and of the Doc-trine and Discipline by Law here establish’d.
To the seventeenth Article this Defendant anlwereth anddenieth, that con-trary to the Duty of his Place, and to the Duty of a good Subject, or to freehimself from Blame, or to raise an ill Opinion of the King in the Hearts ofhis Subjects, he did at any Time declare, that which he did, by his Majesty’sCommand. But that quite contrary hereunto, to attest his own Dutifulnefs,and to advance the Obedience of his Majesty’s good Subjects, and to fettlePeace in their Minds, and to shew the Legality and Warrant of those particularThings which were in Practice, and to discover the evil and disloyal Disposi-tions of some of them which have now been Informers to the HonourableCommon’s-houfe, he held himself in all Duty obliged, that he should notforbear (where due Occasion was) to let the King’s Pleasure be made knownto the rest of his Majesty’s honest and faithful Subjects in manner following.
Returning into Suffolk from attending his Majesty in Anno 1636, he wasgiven to understand, that although the Answer which the King gave (in thisDefendant’s Absence) unto a Petition from Ipswich,> wherein they complained.of the Alteration of the Seats in their Chancels, and of setting up the Com-munion-Tables there, viz. that his Majesty would hear no more of any Com-plaint in this Kind; and that the Bishop had done but his Duty therein, andas his Majesty expected from him, as is before set forth in the Answer to thefourteenth Article of this Charge, had been fully related by the Masters ofthe Requests to one Peter Fijher of Ipswich, Who attended at Court, aboutthe said Petition : yet he conspiring with some'other of .the'Petitioners had,for many Weeks, concealed his Majesty’s Pleasure frbm all but a few of them-selves, and had not made it known to their Neighbours, whom it chiefly con-cerned : this Defendant thereupon held it sit to give Notice of his Majesty’ sroyal Pleasure herein, and caused the Petition itself, which the Master of theRequests had at the King’s Command deliver’d to this Defendant, to be pro*duced in open Court, for the Satisfaction and Content of the good PeopI e »who had craved to be forborn, but till they might hear what answer the K-insJshould give unto their said Petition. ni b
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