A PROCLAMATION By his Excellency Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX: Concerning The proceed of some Ministers of the CHURCH of ENGLAND.  
THE Copy of a Petition to the KING'S MAJESTY WITH A Representation of the Desires of divers Clergymen.  
AND His Excellency's Resolution concerning the insolences exercised by some, to abuse his Excellency and his Council of WAR.  
Aug: 14▪ CAMBRIDGE, Printed for Nathaniel Smith, Anno Dom. 1647.   

A PROCLAMATION By his Excellency Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX: Concerning the proceed of some Ministers of the Church of England WITH His Excellency's Resolution concerning the insolences exercised by some to abuse his Excellency and his Council of War.  
WHEREAS it appears upon sufficient proof, that many violent Tumults and outrages, are committed by several persons, against divers Ministers, placed by Order, or Ordinance of Parliament, in sequestered Live, and for such their violent carriage to, and detaining from the said Ministers, their profits; there is pretended by the said parties, power and authority from the General and the Army: And for the more plausible justifying of their undue pretences herein, have caused to be Printed and Published, a Pamphlet entitled TWO PETITIONS of the sequestered Clergy of England and Wales. One to the Kings most Excellent Majesty; the other to Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX, with a (pretended) Declaration of the General and His Council of War thereupon; of all which actions as aforesaid; We cannot but testify a very ill resentment, and do hereby declare a dislike of such proceed, disclaiming not only the actions themselves to have had any encouragement from us, but also any ends or intentions to that purpose. And to the clearing of ourselves herein, We shall henceforth endeavour the bringing to condign punishment, such who have or shall exercise the like insolences upon any pretence whatsoever.  
Given under my Hand and Seal, the 11 of August, 1647. T. FAIRFAX.   

To the Kings most Excellent Majesty.  
The Humble Petition of many thousands of Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects, the poor sequestered Clergy of England and Wales.  
Humbly showeth,  
THat whereas your Petitioners have a long time been destitute of all livelihood, by means of sequestration of their Estates and other losses, and are at present driven to extreme necessities how to provide for themselves and their Families, and the season now approaching for the receiving the benefits of the Harvest, before which time, if some charitable course be not taken, they are like to starve or beg another year.  
May it therefore please your most Sacred Majesty to take our sad condition into Your Gracious consideration & care, that some course may be taken for our speedy relief, as may preserve us a live, & enable us to do more service in God's Church to Your Majesty and the Kingdom.  
And as in duty bound, we shall ever pray for Your Majesty's happy establishment, and long and prosperous Reign.   

To his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax.  
The humble Petition of many thousands of the poor sequestered Clergy of England and Wales.  
Humbly showeth,  
THat whereas the eyes of all the oppressed people of the Kingdom are fixed upon Your Excellency and the Army as the great Instruments (under God) to restore them to their legal Rights and Liberties, which they do justy ground upon Your several Declarations published to the World.  
And whereas your Petitioners (a considerable number of the free borne men of this Kingdom) have been for divers years outed of their livelihood and freeholds, contrary to Magna Charta & other fundamental Law of the Land, by the arbitrary power of Committees; whose proceed usually have been by no Rule of any known Law but by their own wills: of whose orders no Record is kept, nor scarce any notes or memorial, whereby it may appear when by whom, or for what your Petitioners were removed, the Committees for scandalous and for plundered Ministers (by whom the greatest part are turned out) being grounded not so much as upon any Ordinance of both Houses; the most of your Petitioners outed for refusing the Covenant, or adhering to the King and the Religion established according to their Judgements and Consciences; and, of those, divers were never called to answer, scared one had any Articles proved against him by oath, or other legal process, and some put out upon private information given to the Chaire-man Master White: by which unheard of proceed not to be parallelled in any age Your Petitoners, who have lived heretofore in good esteem, according to their Calling, Degrees,, Birth and Education, are reduced to extreme misery and want, with their Wives and Children, that they must either starve or beg, if some speedy course be not taken for their relief. And whereas those who are put into our places, labour by all means to stir up the people to involve this Kingdom in a new war, and are generally men ignorant and unable to instruct the People, and many of them scandalous in their practices, if impartially examined, and divers of them hold three or four of the best Benefices, whilst divers other Churches are void and without any constant Preacher: And Your Petitioners are ready to submit themselves for their Rights to trial by the known Laws of the of the Land, and if any appear guilty of any legal scandal (which we know to have been unjustly charged upon many, and is a great part of their present sufferings) we shall leave them to undergo the severest punishment and censure, which by any known Law can be inflicted.  
And forasmuch as the main profits of our Benefices consist in the Harvest which is now at hand; which many of the present possessors, if they could receive, would presently be gone, whereby the burden of the Cure will lie upon Your Petitioners, having nothing to live upon all the next year.  
Your Petitioners therefore Humbly pray, that Your Excellency would be pleased to make stay of the profits of this Harvest, in such way as Your Excellency shall think fit, that such as are charged with any legal scandal, may come to a just trial, and both they (if they be found innocent) and the rest may enjoy their Rights, and have the benefit of Subjects, according to the known Law of the Land, and your Petitioners shall ever pray, etc.  
FINIS.