A LETTER Sent from the Archbishop OF. Canterbury (Now prisoner in the Tower) TO THE vicechancellor, Doctors, and the rest of the Convocation at OXFORD, Intimating his humble desires to His Majesty, for a speedy reconcilement between Him and His High Court of PARLIAMENT.  
Ordered to be printed, First at OXFORD by Leonard Lichfield, and now reprinted at LONDON for Edward Vere.   

A Letter sent from the Archbishop of Canturbury.  
Master vicechancellor,  
And you Gentlemen, the rest of my ancient friends and fellow-Students, God, whose Judgements are inserutable, before whom the wisdom of the children of men is but foolishness, hath been pleased to lay his afflictions on me with a heavy hand, glorified be his Name in all his Works; But no one among all the numbers of my miseries hath, or does more afflict me then that I am by my misfortunes made incapable of serving you and that famous Nurse of good Letters, your University (of which I had sometimes the honour to be chancellor) with that entire zeal and devotion, which my intentions aimed at: man purposeth and God disposeth, otherwise had his Almighty Will been concurrent to my wishes, my endeavours should have rendered Oxford the glory of the Christian world for good literature; but men's hopes resemble much the sun, that at his rising and declension casts large shadows, at noon, when he is clothed in all his brightness casts little or none at all; when we are farthest from our expectations, they appear nearest to our hopes: our hopes feeding our imaginations with the prosperity of our intents, which then approach swiftly to ruin, like quite spent tapers, that give a sudden flash ere they extinguish. It was just so with me, who now in stead of all the honours I possessed, am a prisoner; and so like to continue, and would take it as an ample testimony of God almighty's mercy to me, were I but assured to carry my grey hairs down to the grave in peace; but his Will be done, in earth as it is in heaven, I shall endeavour to make the best of my sufferings, that I may say with the Psalmist, It was good for me that I was in trouble. And surely I shall so demean myself towards God, my King, and the commonwealth in this my durance, that in my very enemies I shall beget compassion, in you my friends a hearty sorrow for my miseries, which have taught me that true Dictamen of wisdom, that I shall advise all, especially you of mine own Calling, the clergy, never to meddle with things above your reach, I mean State affairs, but to devote yourselves solely to the service and worship of God, the true feeding the flocks committed to your charge; for dangerous it is to meddle with the council of Kings, especial for those who have professed themselves Ministers of the Almighty, on whose laws they ought only to meditate; the affairs of State being Theatres on which whosoever acts his part, though it appear to him comical in the beginning, the end will produce his own tragedy, if he look not with the greater care to his performance; as it happened to that most famous clergyman of all our Nation, that great Cardinal Woolsey (whom some in a merry mockery) have ●naptly made my parallel in dignity and fortune, who laden with disgraces, jam sumus ergo pares, not long before his departing-minute exclaimed, that if he had served God but with half that integrity he had done the King, he would not have so deserted him in his old age. How I have served my King, than whom no man ever had the happiness to serve a more gracious Master, the world must be my judge, how I have performed my duty to God of that, my own conscience; nor shall I strive to give the world satisfaction in that point, only desire them to remember that divine command; judge not lest you be judged: howsoever I have demeaned myself, it is enough I now suffer, without either repining at the Will of the Almighty, or exprobating mine accusers with the least accusation of malice, though never man hath had so many scandalous abuses cast upon him: none ever (considering my Calling) having been made so notorious a subject for ridiculous Pamphlets and Bailads; but it is not I alone that have endured injuries of that nature, they have fallen with the same licentious petulancy upon my betters, and I have long since studied that Precept of the Wise man, when a fool reviles thee, regard him not, and so enough of this matter, and all other; but the main cause of my writing to you, impute this needless Exordium to my human weakness, which is always prone to tediousness in relation of its misfortunes, to those it is confident will lament and pity them: An instance whereof we have in children, who use to bemoan themselves to their Mothers and Nurses, purposely to have them bemoan them. But to my business: It is not unknown to you Gentlemen, nor to me, though darkness and the shadow of death have even encompassed me round, what Myriads of increasing mischiefs these times have produced in this languishing and almost expiring Kingdom, diffentions, wars and bloodsheds, reigning in every place, fellow Subjects, like the ancien Sword-players, in the Roman Cirques and Amphitheatres, butchering one another merely for their delight in blood, 
Fraternus acies alternaque jura profunis,  
De certata odiis,  May fitly be applied to the condition of our now distressed country, whose soul is, as it were, divided from the body, and itself only the carcase of that England it was formerly. The King's gracious majesty by fatal fears and misconstructions being separated from the body of the commonwealth, the Honourable the high Court of Parliament; and if any comfort can arrive to make a man love his misery or take delight in his inthrallment, certainly I have, that my durance was inflicted on me before this sad and lamentable breach (which heaven in its great mercy soon knit up) happened betwixt his Majesty and his Parliament; for, had I been at liberty, and enjoyed the gracious care of my sovereign as formerly, surely I had not been to have had that aspersion cast upon me as the author of this distraction (such a fatality is always attendant on persons high in the favour of their Prince, to have all the misfortunes of the commonwealth inflicted on them, who may be perchance, not only innocent, but have also endeavoured to have diverted from the State those mischiefs of which they are suspected by some, and by some concluded to have been the main incendiaries: and surely I could wish, so my sufferings might have impeached the impetuous current of the klngdomes' miseries, that I had undergone a thousand deaths before this disjunction had fall'n out between the high Court of Parliament and his Majesty, who being, as I am informed, now with you at Oxford, and intending there to reside, I thought myself engaged in conscience to intimate my intentions to you, and to give you that counsel, which if any one had given me in my prosperity, I might, perchance at this instant, not have been unhappy. I know there are among you divers of great and able souls, take heed, I beseech you, lest you pervert those excellent gifts which God and education hath conferred upon you, by intruding yourselves into the affairs of the State, and inverting Religion to advance and cherish the present distractions. The King is now amongst you, a good and gracious Prince he is, as ever heaven blessed this Land with, do not you any ends whatsoever, increase the number of those Malignants, who have given fire to all the Cedars of Lebanon at once kindled a flame, which in a moment hath almost burned up all the glories of this kingdom; let neither the disgraces cast on the clergy by some factious spirits without the licence or patronage of the Parliament, incense you to cherish the distractions betwixt his Majesty and that honourable and wise Assembly, nor hope of preferment seduce you to it; for credit me, who hath more experience in such affairs than many of you, though the beginning of proceedings of that nature may in fair and specious outsides court your imaginations, their period will be nothing but confusion and bitterness to the undertakers, as other sins are, which like subtle Panthers, display their gorgeous spots to entice the traveller to gaze upon them, till the careless wretches are surely in their reach, and then they assault and devour them. It is ill going between the bark and the tree, (Says the Proverb) take heed of it; there is as near a relation betwixt the King and his Parliament, and though they may a while be separated, that violence cannot be long lived; it will at last conclude in the ruin of those that have caused this separation, they will be sure to suffer. It cannot be but offences must come, but woe be to them from whom they come; mischiefs always meet their Catastraphes in the destruction of their authors. Since than his Majesty hath graciously been pleased to honour your University and City with his royal presence, like good Samaritans, endeavour to pour balm and oil into the wounds of the commonwealth; labour as much as in you lies, to compose these dissensions: it is your Calling to propagate Peace as well as the gospel, which is the testimony of peace, given by the King of Peace to the children of men; you may inform his majesty even out of your Pulpits, and boldly, that nothing is more perquisite to the duty of a Soveraigny than to acquire and advance the good of his Subjects, which can no way so well and suddenly be effected as by a fair Accommodation of peace between his royal self and his high Court of Parliament: And as an incitement to mo●● 〈◊〉 majesty to think of it, if such a wretched man as I be not quite lost to his memory, tender this to him as the hum●●● Petition of his unfortunate servant, that his goodness 〈◊〉 vouchsafe to reflect on my sufferings, who am impossibili●●● by his absence of ever coming to my trial, and so likely to end my days in a prison. But this only as the least motive, because it is for myself, but further beseech his highness from me, to look with a compassionate and tender eye on the Religion, Nobility and Commons of this unhappy kingdom, and by a speedy reconciliation with the honourable the high Court of Parliament at once finish all their miseries. And lastly, pray you signify to his majesty, that I lay my life down in all humility at his royal feet, beseeching God day and night for his prosperity, peace and happiness, desiring no longer life for any end, but this, to see his majesty, the glory of our Israel, return to his Jerusalem, all differences atoned betwixt him and his Parliament, which are the continual prayers of his highness' humblest servant, and your true friend,  
W. C.  
FINIS.