THE ARTICLES AND CHARGE PROVED IN PARLIAMENT AGAINST Doctor Walton, Minister of St. Martin's Orgars in Cannon street.  
Wherein his subtle tricks, and popish Innovations are discovered; as also the consultations, and assistance he hath had therein by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Rochester, Mr. Brough, and Mr. Baker to effect the same.  
As also his impudence in defaming the Honourable members of the house of Commons, by scandalous aspersions and abusive language.  
LONDON, Printed 1641.   

To the Honourable the house of Commons assembled in Parliament. The humble Petition of the Parishioners of St. Martin's Orgar London,  
Humbly beseecheth this honourable Assembly, to take into their serious and religious consideration, your petitioners extreme sufferings, by the violence and wrongs done unto them, by Bryan Walton Doctor in Divinity their Parson, but a man of an unquiet and unpeaceable carriage, making differences with his Parishioners, both by the new way of officiating in his Function to the scandal & offence of many, and his eager prosecution of such of his Parishioners as are not of his party and opinion, and also by his greedy and covetous gaining into his power by indirect means the disposition of a great part of the Rents and profits of the Church lands, which are directed for other employment, whose turbulent courses, and troublesome carriage is such, that your Petitioners have but little comfort from him for matter of conscience, nor quiet in their temporal estate and abiding.  
1 That the said Doctor Walton about the end of March 1637. did in despite and malice toward divers of his Parishioners, whom he knew well would be troubled at it, repair to the said Church of St. Martin's Orgar, accompanied, for the better countenancing of his unlawful act, with Mr. Doctor Warner, now Lord Bishop of Rochester, Doctor Brough, and Doctor Baker, together also with two other men, whose names your Petitioners have learned to be Hayward and Smith, and then sent for Mr. Gore then Churchwarden, who being come, they commanded him in the King's name, & in the name of the Lord Archbishop's grace of Canterbury, forthwith to take the Communion Table, which then stood in the midst of the Chancel compassed in on all sides with a very fair rail, and to set it, and mount it up under the East window in form of an Altar; Mr. Gore for that they made show to come with authority, desired to have sight of their warrant, No, they had it, but he should not see it; Whereupon Mr. Gore did deny to obey their Command; then came Doctor Warner to the Table in a riotous way, and calling to the rest to help him, they together took hold of the Table, lifted it over the Rails, and carried and placed it under the East window; And the said Doctor Walton threatened the said Mr. Gore, that if he should cause the Table to be removed bacl again to the place where it did stand, that he should be punished for it in the high Commission court; Whereof Mr. Gore being fearful, knowing well the malice of the man, suffered it to stand where the said Doctor had placed it, and where it now stands raised up with several ascents and degrees in the fashion of an Altar, to the scandal and discontentment of the Parishioners, whom he causeth to come thither to receive the Sacrament; And for the morning service, part thereof he reads, or causeth to be read in the usual reading pew, and thereof all that are present may be partakers, a second part he carries with him to the Altar where it is read, but so that a great part of his parishioners scarce hear more than a sound or noise, and in stead thereof their eyes observations are taken up with his lowly incurvation and bowing towards the Altar, which he often useth, and until the Sermon be ended, his Curates station is appointed to be at the Altar in his Surplice, and then concludes with a third part of Service.  
2. The said Doctor hath refused to administer the sacrament of Baptism to Infants, who have been presented in the Church for that purpose, on the holy day before divine Service, though he hath been beforehand made acquainted therewith and desired; For what cause your Petitioners know not, other then that their parents were not in his favour.  
3. He neither preacheth nor catechiseth on Sundays in the afternoons, nor will permit the Petitioners to procure a Preacher, though at their own charge, yet he puts into an account which he makes in the spiritual Court twenty pounds for afternoons Sermons, which is allowed him there, he is nonresident all the Summer, and commits the charge of your Petitioners souls to an ignorant Curate, maintaining him no otherwise then with a salary catched out of the Revenue of the Parish-lands, which he doth in this manner, wherein also lieth another grievance. One William Cromer Knight, 10. H. 6. gave divers Tenements in London to God, and the said Church, and to john Nchol then Parson and his successors for ever, to find therewith a Chaplain to pray for his soul, and to keep an Anniversary, and the residue to repair the Church and Ornaments, which Tenements by reason of the superstitious use aforesaid were seized into the hands of E. 6. upon the Statute of Chantries, and granted away. These lands of late years, at the great charge and labour of the Parishioners, have been recovered by judgement upon Argument in the King's Bench, and for maintenance of that suit the Parish hath been forced to sell other houses; It fortuned that near about the end of this suit the Doctor comes to be Parson there, And then as if the lands were all his own, he falls to letting of Leases, and taking Fines, which he puts into his own purse. This wrong to the Parish, occasioned a suit with him in his Majesty's high court of Chancery; Where upon hearing, a reference was made to Sir Edward Littleton then Solicitor general, now Lord chief justice of the Common-Pleas, and to Mr. Chute being then the Counsel on both sides to settle the business, who not only allowed the Doctor to go away with the Fines he had taken by making Leases at undervalues of the houses recovered at the parish charges, but giving faith to an Affidavit by him then made of a bill of great disbursments out of his own purse expended in the recovery of the said houses, gave allowance of them also, & upon their report to the Court a Decree was passed, and now he takes & receives all the rents and profits to his own use, accounts not at all to the Parish, but keeps them strangers to all, as if it concerned them not: Whereas the Decree allows charges to your Petitioners aswell as to him, and directs that de futuro, in the Leases that should be made, the Churchwardens for the time being should be named, and though the Rents are directed to be made paiable to the Doctor and his successors, yet they are to be delivered over to remain in the hands of the Churchwardens, for the reimbursing the parishioners their charges expended about the recovery of the said Lands, and the rest to be employed by the Parson and Churchwardens, for the performance of the charitable uses aforesaid, appointed by the Will of the said Cromer; Thus it stands decreed; And the said Doctor, though this Decree is made by his own consent, and is so expressed in the very Decree, finds this way to elude it; He makes his address by Petition to the Lord Archbishop's grace of Canterbury, and prays that he might retain in his hands forty marks per annum without account, and that twenty pounds per annum only might be allowed towards the repair of the said Church, and for Ornaments and other uses; Upon this petition an Act is made by Sir john Lamb, directed by his Grace, and entered into a Registry, whereby Mr. Doctor Waltons' desire is accomplished, and the Parish deprived of so much, and the Decree in Chancery made frustrate; And by this contrivance and device, against Law, against the Will of the Donor, and against the Decree in Chancery, the said Parson hath wrought and procured for himself and his Successors the Tenements aforesaid, which out of Lease are worth above two hundred pounds per annum, whereby your Petitioners are defeated of their charges, and the Church of its right, and in such a way as is without precedent or example, all which the Petitioners can make plainly appear by the Decree in Chancery, and the Petition of the said Doctor, and order of the said Archbishop of Canterbury, and by his unjust accounts made in the Ecclesiastical Courts, wherein all his demands are allowed, ready to be produced to this honourable Assembly: And that posterity may be the more deceived, he hath taken the boldness, as if it were a thing of undeniable truth, to assume to himself the title of recovering the possessions of the Church, and hath caused this untrue Inscription to be set up in the East window over the Altar, (viz.) Sir William Cromer Knight Anno 1431. gave to the Parson of this Church and his Successors for ever, all his lands and tenements in the parishes of St. Swithin and St. Olaves' Hartstreet London, towards the daily Celebration of divine Service, and reparation of this Church and Chancel, and the Ornaments thereof, which lands being taken away the first of E. 6. were in part recovered to the said Church, for the said uses, by the said Brian Walton now Incumbent, and with the profits thereof this Church and Chancel were repaired, Anno Dom. 1637. and over that Inscription the said Brian Walton hath set his own Arms and the said Cromers, and gives the charge thereof in account in the spiritual Court, to be allowed out of the rents of the said Church lands.  
4. The said Doctor not content with the usual Tithes of the Parish which have been paid according to the Statute, to gain an Augmentation of 2s. 9d. in the pound, according to the very value of men's houses, he hath preferred several Petitions to the King, and to the Lord Major of London, and commenced several suits in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and very lately (viz.) upon the sixteenth of November 1640. preferred his bills in Chancery against one of the Parishioners for the said 2. shillings 9 pence in the pound, and formerly preferred a bill there, and never proceeded therein, merely to vex and weary out the Petitioners, making them to forsake their dwellings; He exacteth with threaten tithes of many poor people, and of such as receive the alms of the Parish, and yet hath another Benefice of 200. pounds per annum, or thereabout, in Essex.  
5. He turmoileth the Petitioners with Informations and Excommunications, prosecuting them in the high Commission upon that extorted, and self-accusing oath Ex officio, framing divers Articles against them containing divers charges of several natures, making your Petitioners a prey to Officers, and though wronged, yet left at last without relief; for although some of your Petitioners after sentence of Excommunication against them, (with much difficulty) have obtained their absolution, and delivered the same to the Curate or Clerk, yet the said Doctor getting knowledge thereof, hath not forborn to publish the Excommunication, and forbidden the Curate to declare the Absolution, and such is his power and countenance in the high Commission, and other Ecclesiastical Courts, that he daily gets heart and encouragement to vex your Petitioners in these Courts, glorying and rejoicing in his vexation of his Parishioners, who are committed to him for better purposes.  
6. The said Doctor appropriateth to himself divers Pews in the Chancel, and hath caused divers of the most ancient pews to be cut up, to make way, and open passage to the said Altar, and although the Petitioners to prevent the said disturbance, procured the Chancellors command for stay of his intended work, yet presuming upon his favour in those Eccelesiastical courts, with a high hand he proceeded, and did finish his work; he appropriateth to himself the upper part of the North and South Isles of the Church for burial, digging Vaults, and taking great sums of money, of some more, of some less, and of whom he pleaseth, for their burial there, making promises and warranties to defend them against the parish, or whomsoever should gainsay; he hath cut, and caused to be cut and defaced the Table of Rates for Burials and Weddings, and other Parish duties, usually hanging in the Vestry, & since the defacing thereof, he exacteth extraordinary sums of money for burial both of strangers and parishioners, and hath caused their Vestry book to be carried into the high Commission Court, where it hath remained three or four years, which book he hath both interlined at his pleasure, and crossed out his own name subscribed to certain Orders, and hath gotten into his possession, and wrongfully detains from the Parish their evidences and writings which belong not to him, to the great detriment of the parishioners, and disorderly carriage of the Parish affairs, and he forbiddeth and putteth down their Vestry-meetings.  
7. The turbulence and malignity of this man's spirit appeareth also in this, that he disgracefully & contemptuously asperseth those persons of quality and worth, which at this time serve the Commonwealth in the Honourable house of Parliament, as men chosen for the Knights and Burgesses of this City, affirming that the City had chosen Soame because he would not pay Ship-money, Vassal because he would not pay the King his customs, Penington because he entertains silenced Ministers, and Cradocke to send them over into New England.  
Now forasmuch as the rehearsed innovations, usurpations, vexations, and wrongs tend to the high dishonour of God, blemish and scandal to the Religion established, and the peaceable government of the Church, as also to the great distraction and disturbance of the Petitioners in the service of God, causing great disorder, trouble, and charge to the Petitioners, and the grief of their hearts, in that they cannot enjoy the Ordinances of God in their purity, without the interposing and mingling of such Ceremonies introduced by the said Doctor,  
The Petitioners humbly beseech this Honourable Assembly to examine their abuses, and to take some course for their Reformation, that your Petitioners may as their Predecessors and Ancestors have done serve God in quiet, and enjoy themselves and their own peace, being set free from the oppressions and troubles, wherewith the said Doctor hath made them too well acquainted; And that the Lands and rents may be enjoyed and employed to the good and religious uses intended by the first Donor, and since confirmed by the Decree of the Honourable Court of Chancery,  
And your Petitioners as in duty bound shall continue their prayers for the happy success of your great designs.  
FINIS.