rests. He erected Arbitrary Courts, and enlarged others, as the High Commiſſion Court, the Star-Chamber, Court of Honour, Court of Requeſts, &c. and unſpeakable Oppreſſions were committed in them, even to Men of the firſt Quality. He commanded the Earl of Briſtol[1] and Biſhop of Lincoln not to come to Parliament; com-
mitted and proſecuted a great many of the moſt eminent Members of the Houſe of Commons for what they did there, ſome for no cauſe at all, and would not let them have the benefit of Habeas Corpus; ſuſpended and con-
fin'd Arch-Biſhop Abbot, becauſe he would not licenſe a Sermon that aſſerted Deſpotic Power, whatever other cauſe was pretended. He ſuſpended the Biſhop of Gloceſter, for refuſing to ſwear never to conſent to alter the Government of the Church; ſupported all his Arbitrary Miniſters againſt the Parliament, telling them that he wondred at the fooliſh Impudence of any one to think he would part with the meaneſt of his Servants upon their account: and indeed in his Speeches, or rather Menaces, he treated them like his Footmen, calling them Unduti-
ful, Seditious, and Vipers. He brought unheard of In-
novations into the Church; preferred Men of Arbitrary Principles, and inclinable to Popery, eſpecially thoſe Firebrands, Laud, Mountage, and Manwaring, one of whom had been complained of in Parliament, another impeached for advancing Popery, and the third condem-
ned in the Houſe of Lords. He diſpenſed with the Laws againſt Papiſts, and both encouraged and preferred them. He called no Parliament for twelve years toge-
ther, and in that time governed as arbitrarily as the Grand Seignior. He abetted the Iriſh Maſſacre, as ap-
pears by their producing a Commiſſion under the Great Seal of Scotland, by the Letter of Charles the 2d in fa-
vour of the Marqueſs of Antrim, by his ſtopping the Succours that the Parliament ſent to reduce Ireland ſix Months under the Walls of Cheſter, by his entring into a Treaty with the Rebels after he had engaged his Faith to the Parliament to the contrary, and bringing over many thouſands of them to fight againſt his People. It is endleſs to enumerate all the Oppreſſions of his Reign; but having no Army to ſupport him, his Tyranny was precarious, and at laſt his ruin. Tho' he extorted great
- ↑ See also the 1st Earl of Bristol's entry in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
