Part 6

V. He never preached, &c.

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Antrobus was now become a great champion for the Parliament; but, at the day of hearing, I had procured abundance of my friends to be there; for the godly, as they termed themselves, sided with him; the present Master of the Rolls was Chairman that day, Sir Harbottle Grimston.

Who, hearing the foulness of the cause, was very much ashamed thereof. I remember Antrobus, being there, pleaded he was in his natural condition when he acted so ungraciously.

'What condition were you in,' said the Chairman, 'when you lay with mother and daughter?'

'There is no proof of that,' saith he.

'None but your own confession,' said the Chairman, 'nor could any tell so well.'

'I am not given to drunkenness,' quoth he. 'He was so drunk within this fortnight,' quoth I, 'he reeled from one side of the street to the other; here is the witness to prove it:' who, presently, before the committee, being sworn, made it good, and named the place and street where he was drunk. So he was adjudged scandalous, and outed of his benefice, and our minister had the parsonage.

You cannot imagine how much the routing of this drunken parson pleased Mr. Pennington, who paid all charges munificently and thankfully.

But now follows the last and greatest kindness I ever did him. Notwithstanding the committee for sequestrations in Cumberland were his very good friends, yet the sub-sequestrators, of their own heads, and without order, and by strength of arms, secured his irons, his wood, and so much of his personal estate as was valued at seven thousand pounds. Now had I complaint upon complaint: would I suffer my old friend to be thus abused? it was in my power to free him from these villains.

I hereupon advised what was best to do, and was counselled to get Mr. Speaker Lenthall's letter to the sub-sequestrators, and command them to be obedient to the committee of the county.

Whereupon, I framed a letter myself, unto the sub-sequestrators directed, and with it, myself and Mr. Laurence Maydwell (whom yourself well knew) went to Mr. Speaker, unto whom we sufficiently related the stubbornness of the officers of Cumberland; their disobedience to the committee; and then shewed him the letter, which when he had read over, he most courteously signed, adding withal, that if they proceeded further in sequestring Mr. Pennington, he would command a Serjeant at Arms to bring them up to answer their contempts: I immediately posted that letter to my friend, which when the absurd fellows received, they delivered him possession of his goods again; and, for my pains, when he came to London, gave me one hundred pounds; he died in 1652, of a violent fever. I did carefully, in 1642 and 1643, take notice of every grand action which happened betwixt King and Parliament, and did first then incline to believe, that as all sublunary affairs did depend upon superior causes, so there was a possibility of discovering them by the configurations of the superior bodies; in which way making some essays in those two years, I found encouragement to proceed further, which I did; I perused the writings of the ancients, but therein they were silent, or gave no satisfaction; at last, I framed unto myself that method, which then and since I follow, which, I hope, in time may be more perfected by a more penetrating person than myself.

In 1643, I became familiarly known to Sir Bulstrode Whitlocke, a member of the House of Commons; he being sick, his urine was brought unto me by Mrs. Lisle, wife to John Lisle, afterwards one of the keepers of the Great Seal; having set my figure, I returned answer, the sick for that time would recover, but by means of a surfeit would dangerously relapse within one month; which he did, by eating of trouts at Mr. Sand's house, near Leatherhead in Surrey. Then I went daily to visit him, Dr. Prideau despairing of his life; but I said there was no danger thereof, and that he would be sufficiently well in five or six weeks; and so he was.

In 1644, I published Merlinus Anglicus Junior about April. I had given one day the copy thereof unto the then Mr. Whitlocke, who by accident was reading thereof in the House of Commons: ere the Speaker took the chair, one looked upon it, and so did many, and got copies thereof; which when I heard, I applied myself to John Booker to license it, for then he was licenser of all mathematical books; I had, to my knowledge, never seen him before; he wondered at the book, made many impertinent obliterations, framed many objections, swore it was not possible to distinguish betwixt King and Parliament; at last licensed it according to his own fancy; I delivered it unto the printer, who being an arch Presbyterian, had five of the ministry to inspect it, who could make nothing of it, but said it might be printed, for in that I meddled not with their Dagon. The first impression was sold in less than one week; when I presented some to the members of Parliament, I complained of John Booker the licenser, who had defaced my book; they gave me order forthwith to reprint it as I would, and let them know if any durst resist me in the reprinting, or adding what I thought fit; so the second time it came forth as I would have it.

I must confess, I now found my scholar Humphreys's words to be true concerning John Booker, whom at that time I found but moderately versed in astrology; nor could he take the circles of position of the planets, until in that year I instructed him. After my Introduction in 1647 became publick, he amended beyond measure, by study partly, and partly upon emulation to keep up his fame and reputation; so that since 1647, I have seen some nativities by him very judiciously performed. When the printer presented him with an Introduction of mine, as soon as they were forth of the press; 'I wish,' saith he, 'there was never another but this in England, conditionally I gave one hundred pounds for this.' After that time we were very great friends to his dying day.

In June, 1644, I published Supernatural Sight; and, indeed, if I could have procured the dull stationer to have been at charges to have cut the icon or form of that prodigious apparition, as I had drawn it forth, it would have given great satisfaction; however, the astrological judgment thereupon had its full event in every particular.

That year also I published the White King's Prophecy, of which there were sold in three days eighteen hundred, so that it was oft reprinted: I then made no commentary upon it.

In that year I printed the Prophetical Merlin, and had eight pounds for the copy.

I had then no farther intention to trouble the press any more, but Sir Richard Napper having received one of Captain Wharton's Almanacks for 1645, under the name Naworth, he came unto me: 'Now, Lilly, you are met withal, see here what Naworth writes.' The words were, he called me 'an impudent senseless fellow, and by name William Lilly.'

Before that time, I was more Cavalier than Roundhead, and so taken notice of; but after that I engaged body and soul in the cause of Parliament, but still with much affection to his Majesty's person and unto monarchy, which I ever loved and approved beyond any government whatsoever; and you will find in this story many passages of civility which I did, and endeavoured to do, with the hazard of my life, for his Majesty: but God had ordered all his affairs and counsels to have no successes; as in the sequel will appear.

To vindicate my reputation, and to cry quittance with Naworth, against whom I was highly incensed, to work I went again for Anglicus, 1645; which as soon as finished I got to the press, thinking every day one month till it was publick: I therein made use of the King's nativity, and finding that his ascendant was approaching to the quadrature of Mars, about June, 1645, I gave this unlucky judgment; 'If now we fight, a victory stealeth upon us;' and so it did in June, 1645, at Naseby, the most fatal overthrow he ever had.

In this year, 1645, I published a treatise called the Starry Messenger, with an interpretation of three suns seen in London, 29th May, 1644, being Charles the Second's birthday: in that book I also put forth an astrological judgment concerning the effects of a solar eclipse, visible the 11th of August, 1645. Two days before its publishing, my antagonist, Captain Wharton, having given his astronomical judgment upon his Majesty's present march from Oxford; therein again fell foul against me and John Booker: Sir Samuel Luke, Governor of Newportpagnel, had the thing came to his garrison from Oxford, which presently was presented unto my view. I had but twelve hours, or thereabout, to answer it, which I did with such success as is incredible; and the printer printed both the March and my answer unto it, and produced it to sight, with my Starry Messenger, which came forth and was made publick the very day of the Parliament's great victory obtained against his Majesty in person at Naseby, under the conduct of the Lord Thomas Fairfax.

That book no sooner appeared, but within fourteen days complaint was made to the committee of examinations, Miles Corbet then being Chairman, my mortal enemy, he who after was hanged, drawn, and quartered, for being one of the King's Judges; he grants his warrant, and a messenger to the Serjeant at Arms seizeth my person. As I was going to Westminster with the messenger, I met Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir Christopher Wray, Mr. Denzil Hollis, Mr. Robert Reynolds, who, by great fortune, had the Starry Messenger sheet by sheet from me as it came from the press. They presently fell a smiling at me; 'Miles Corbet, Lilly, will punish thee soundly; but fear nothing, we will dine, and make haste to be at the committee time enough to do the business;' and so they most honourably performed; for they, as soon as they came, sat down, and put Mr. Reynolds purposely into the chair, and I was called in; but Corbet being not there, they bid me withdraw until he came; which when he did, I was commanded to appear, and Corbet desired to give the cause of my being in restraint, and of the committee's order. Mr. Reynolds was purposely put into the chair, and continued till my business was over.

Corbet produced my Anglicus of 1645, and said there were many scandalous passages therein against the Commissioners of Excise in London. He produced one passage, which being openly read by himself, the whole committee adjudged it to signify the errors of sub-officers, but had no relation to the Commissioners themselves, which I affirmatively maintained to be the true meaning as the committee declared.

Then Corbet found out another dangerous place, as he thought, and the words were thus in the printed book--'In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will not the Excise pay the soldiers?'

Corbet very ignorantly read, 'will not the Eclipse pay soldiers?' at which the Committee fell heartily to laugh at him, and so he became silent.

There was a great many Parliament men there; the chamber was full. 'Have you any more against Mr. Lilly?' cried the chairman.

'Yes,' saith the Sollicitor for the Excise, 'since his Starry Messenger came forth we had our house burnt, and the Commissioners pulled by their cloaks in the Exchange.' 'Pray, sir, when was this,' asked old Sir Robert Pye, 'that the house was burnt, and the Aldermen abused?' 'It was in such a week,' saith he. 'Mr. Lilly, when came the book forth?' 'The very day of Naseby fight,' answered Mr. Reynolds, 'nor needs he be ashamed of writing it: I had it daily as it came forth of the press: it was then found the house to be burnt, and the Aldermen abused, twelve days before the Starry Messenger came forth.' 'What a lying fellow art thou,' saith Sir Robert Pye, 'to abuse us so!' This he spoke to the Sollicitor. Then stood up one Bassell, a merchant: he inveighed bitterly against me, being a Presbyterian, and would have had my books burnt. 'You smell more of a citizen than a scholar,' replied Mr. Francis Drake. I was ordered to withdraw, and by and by was called in, and acquainted the committee did discharge me. But I cried with a loud voice, 'I was under a messenger;' whereupon the committee ordered him or the Serjeant at Arms not to take any fees; Mr. Reynolds saying, 'Literate men never pay any fees.'