The Diary of Samuel Pepys [167]
to hear Dr. Critton. [Creighton.] The Doctor preached upon the thirty-first of Jeremy, and the twenty-first and twenty-second verses, about a woman compassing a man; meaning the Virgin conceiving and bearing our Saviour. It was the worst sermon I ever heard him make, I must confess; and yet it was good, and in two places very bitter, advising the King to do as the Emperor Severus did, to hang up a Presbyter John (a short coat and a long gowne interchangeably) in all the Courts of England. But the story of Severus was pretty, that he hanged up forty senators before the Senate-house, and then made a speech presently to the Senate in praise of his own lenity; and then decreed that never any senator after that time should suffer in the same manner without consent of the Senate: which he compared to the proceeding of the Long Parliament against my Lord Strafford. He said the greatest part of the lay magistrates in England were Puritans, and would not do justice; and the Bishops' powers were so taken away and lessened, that they could not exercise the power they ought. He told the King and the ladies, plainly speaking of death and of the skulls and bones of dead men and women, how there is no difference; that nobody could tell that of the great Marius or Alexander from a pyoneer; nor, for all the pains the ladies take with their faces, he that should look in a charnel-house could not distinguish which was Cleopatra's, or fair Rosamond's, or Jane Shore's.
26th. Sir W. Batten told me how Sir Richard Temple hath spoke very discontentful words in the house about the Triennial Bill; but it hath been read the second time to-day, and committed; and, he believes, will go on without more ado, though there are many in the house are displeased at it, though they dare not say much. But above all expectation, Mr. Prin is the man against it, comparing it to the idoll whose head was of gold, and his body and legs and feet of different metal. So this Bill had several degrees of calling of Parliaments, in case the King, and then the Council, and then the Lord Chancellor, and then the Sheriffes, should fail to do it. He tells me also, how, upon occasion of some 'prentices being put in the pillory to-day for beating of their masters or such like thing, in Cheapside, a company of 'prentices come and rescued them, and pulled down the pillory; and they being set up again, did the like again.
28th. The great matter to-day in the House hath been, that Mr. Vaughan, [John Vaughan, afterwards knighted, and made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.] the great speaker, is this day come to town, and hath declared himself in a speech of an hour and a half with great reason and eloquence, against the repealing of the Bill for Triennial Parliaments, but with no successe: but the House have carried it that there shall be such Parliaments, but without any coercive power upon the King, if he will bring this Act. But, Lord! to see how the best things are not done without some design; for I perceive all these gentlemen that I was with to-day, are against it (though there was reason enough on their side); yet purely I could perceive, because it was the King's mind to have it; and should he demand any thing else, I believe they would give it him.
APRIL 1, 1664. To White Hall; and in the Gallery met the Duke of York; (I also saw the Queene going to the Park, and her Maids of Honour: she herself looks ill, and methinks Mrs. Stewart is grown fatter, and not so fair as she was:) and he called me to him, and discoursed a good while with me; and after he was gone, twice or thrice staid and called me again to him, the whole length of the house: and at last talked of the Dutch; and I perceive do much wish that the Parliament will find reason to fall out with them.
3rd. Called up by W. Joyce, [William Joyce had married Mr. Pepys' first cousin, Kate Fenner.] he being summonsed to the House of Lords to-morrow, for endeavouring to arrest my Lady Peters for a debt. [Elizabeth, daughter of John Earl Rivers, and first wife to William fourth Lord Petre,
26th. Sir W. Batten told me how Sir Richard Temple hath spoke very discontentful words in the house about the Triennial Bill; but it hath been read the second time to-day, and committed; and, he believes, will go on without more ado, though there are many in the house are displeased at it, though they dare not say much. But above all expectation, Mr. Prin is the man against it, comparing it to the idoll whose head was of gold, and his body and legs and feet of different metal. So this Bill had several degrees of calling of Parliaments, in case the King, and then the Council, and then the Lord Chancellor, and then the Sheriffes, should fail to do it. He tells me also, how, upon occasion of some 'prentices being put in the pillory to-day for beating of their masters or such like thing, in Cheapside, a company of 'prentices come and rescued them, and pulled down the pillory; and they being set up again, did the like again.
28th. The great matter to-day in the House hath been, that Mr. Vaughan, [John Vaughan, afterwards knighted, and made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.] the great speaker, is this day come to town, and hath declared himself in a speech of an hour and a half with great reason and eloquence, against the repealing of the Bill for Triennial Parliaments, but with no successe: but the House have carried it that there shall be such Parliaments, but without any coercive power upon the King, if he will bring this Act. But, Lord! to see how the best things are not done without some design; for I perceive all these gentlemen that I was with to-day, are against it (though there was reason enough on their side); yet purely I could perceive, because it was the King's mind to have it; and should he demand any thing else, I believe they would give it him.
APRIL 1, 1664. To White Hall; and in the Gallery met the Duke of York; (I also saw the Queene going to the Park, and her Maids of Honour: she herself looks ill, and methinks Mrs. Stewart is grown fatter, and not so fair as she was:) and he called me to him, and discoursed a good while with me; and after he was gone, twice or thrice staid and called me again to him, the whole length of the house: and at last talked of the Dutch; and I perceive do much wish that the Parliament will find reason to fall out with them.
3rd. Called up by W. Joyce, [William Joyce had married Mr. Pepys' first cousin, Kate Fenner.] he being summonsed to the House of Lords to-morrow, for endeavouring to arrest my Lady Peters for a debt. [Elizabeth, daughter of John Earl Rivers, and first wife to William fourth Lord Petre,