clam Autographum surripuerat 5. Septemb. Anno Dom. 1553. Number 9. The Conclusion of Cardinal Pool's Instructions to Mr. Goldwell sent by him to the Queen An Original Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. FOr the conclusion of all that is comprised in your Instruction as that the which containeth the whole Sum of my poor Advice and Counsel it pleaseth her Grace to ask of me you shall say That my most humble desire is that in all deliberation her Grace shall make touching the maintenance of her State the same will ever well ponder and consider what the Providence of God hath shewed therein above that which hath been shewed in her Predecessors Kings of this Realm in this one Point which is to have the Crown not only as a King's Daughter and Heir but hath ordered that this Point of right Inheritance shall depend as it doth of the Authority he hath given to his Church and of the See of Rome which is the See Apostolick approving her Mother to be Legitimate Wife of King Henry the Eighth whereby she is bound afore God and Man as she will show her self the very Daughter of the said King Henry the Eighth right Heir of the Crown so also to show her self right Daughter of the Church and of them that be resident in the See Apostolick who be the right Heirs of Peter to whom and his Successors Christ chief Head of the Church in Heaven and in Earth hath given in Earth to bear his Place touching the Rule of the same Church and to have the Crown thereof which well considered and pondered her Grace shall soon see how in her Person the Providence of God hath joined the Right she hath by her Father in the Realm with the Right of the Church that she cannot prevail by the one except she join the other withal and they that will separate these two take away not only half her Right but her whole Right being not so much Heir because she is King Henry's only Daughter without Issue Male as she is his lawful Daughter which she hath by the Authority of the Church Which thing prudently and godly considered she cannot but see what faithful counsel this is That above all Acts that in this Parliament shall be made doth advertise her Grace to establish that the which pertaineth to the establishing of the Authority of the Church and the See of the same what rendering to him that is right Successor to Peter therein his right Title of Head in the Church in Earth without the which she cannot be right Head in the Realm and this established all Controversy is taken away and who will repine unto this he doth repine unto her right of the Crown Wherefore this is my first Advice That this Point above all other should be entreated and enacted in the Parliament and so I know her Graces full mind was and is that it should be But she feareth Difficulties and hereupon dependeth that her Grace asketh my poor Advice how these Difficulties may be taken away Unto this you may say That they must be taken away by the help of him that by his high Providence above Man's expectance hath given her already the Crown Which will have as well this second Act known of the maintainance thereof to depend of him as the first in attaining thereto And to have his help the mean is by humble Prayer wherein I would advertise her Highness not only to give her self to Prayer but also by Alms to the needy excitate the Minds of others to Prayer these be the means of most efficacy and with this to take that ardent Mind to establish the Authority of the Church casting away all fear of Man that she to be to have her Crown and not so much for her own sake as for the Honour of God which gave her the Crown And if any Difficulty should be feared in the Parliament herein leave the honour to take away the difficulty thereof to none other but assume that person to her self as most bound thereto and to propone that her self which I would trust to be of that efficacy that if inwardly any Man will repugn outwardly the Reasons be so evident for this part that joined with the Authority of her Person being proponent none will be so hardy temerarious nor impious that will resist And if in this deliberation it should seem strange to put forth these Matters in the Parliament as I have said in the Instructions without communicating the same with any of her Council I would think it well her Grace might confer it with two of the chiefest that be counted of the People most near her favour one Spiritual and another Temporal with declaring to them first how touching her Conscience afore God and her Right afore the World she can never be quiet until this Matter be stablished touching the Authority of the Church requiring their uttermost help in that as if she should fight for the Crown her Majesty may be sure she putting the same forth with that earnest manner they will not lack to serve her and they may serve quietly in the Parliament after her Grace hath spoken to prosecute and justify the same with efficacy of words to give all others example to follow her Grace leaving this part unto them That if the Name of Obedience to the Pope should seem to bring as it were a Yoke to the Realm or any other kind of servitude beside that it should be profitable to the Realm both afore God and Man that her Grace that bringeth it in again will never suffer it nor the Pope himself requireth no such thing And herein also that they say That my Person being the Mean to bring it in would never agree to be an Instrument thereof if I thought any thraldom should come thereby they shall never be deceived of me And if they would say beside I would never have taken this Enterprize upon me except I thought by the same to bring great Comfort to the Country wherein the Pope's Authority being accepted I would trust should be so used that it might be an Example of Comfort not only to that Country but to all other that hath rejected it afore and for that cause hath been ever since in great misery This is the sum of all my poor Advice at this time in this Case whereof I beseech Almighty God so much may take effect as shall be to his Honour and Wealth to her Grace and the whole Realm besides Amen Number 10. A Copy of a Letter with Articles sent from the Queens Majesty unto the Bishop of London and by him and his Officers at her gracious Commandment to be put in speedy execution with effect in the whole Diocess as well in places exempt as not exempt whatsoever according to the Tenour and Form of the same Sent by the Queen's Majesty's Commandment in the Month of March Anno Dom. 1553. By the QUEEN RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved We
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
and Temporalty did without compulsion give their assent he remembers her what opposition the stiff-necked Papists gave him and what Rebellions they raised against him which he wonders how she came so soon to forget Adding that death had prevented him before he had finished these Godly Orders which he had designed and that no kind of Religion was perfected at his death but all was left so uncertain that it must inevitably bring on great disorders if God did not help them and that himself and many others could witness what regret their late Master had when he saw he must die before he had finished what he intended He wond'red that she who had been well bred and was learned should esteem true Religion and the knowledge of the Scriptures Newfangledness or Fantasie He desired she would turn the Leaf and look on the other side and would with an humble Spirit and by the assistance of the Grace of God consider the matter better Thus things went on till the Parliament met The Parliament meets which was summoned to meet the fourth of November The day before it met Novemb. 3. the Protector gave too publick an instance how much his prosperous success had lifted him up For by a Patent under the Great Seal Rot. Pat. 1. Reg. 7. Part. he was warranted to sit in Parliament on the Right Hand of the Throne under the Cloath of State and was to have all the Honours and Priviledges that at any time any of the Unkles of the Kings of England whether by the Fathers or Mothers side had enjoyed with a Non obstante to the Statute of Precedence The Lord Rich had been made Lord Chancellor on the 24th of October but whether the Protector or he opened the Parliament by any Speech does not appear from the Journal of the Lords House On the 10th of Decemb. Decemb. 10. a Bill was brought in for the repealing several Statutes It was read the second time on the 12th and the third time on the 16th day On the 19th 19. some Provisoes were added to it and it was sent down to the Commons who sent it up the 23d of December 23. Dec. to which the Royal Assent was given The Commons had formed a new Bill for repealing these Statutes which upon some Conferences they were willing to let fall only some Provisoes were added to the old one upon which the Bishops of London Duresme Ely Hereford and Chichester dissented An Act repealing former severe Laws The Preamble of it sets forth That nothing made a Government happier than when the Prince governed with much clemency and the Subjects obeyed out of love Yet the late King and some of his Progenitors being provoked by the unruliness of some of their People had made severe Laws but they judging it necessary now to recommend the Kings Government to the affections of the People repealed all Laws that made any thing to be Treason but what was in the Act of 25 of Edw. the 3d as also two of the Statutes about Lollardies together with the Act of the six Articles and the other Acts that followed in explanation of that All Acts in King Henry the 8th's time declaring any thing to be Felony that was not so declared before were also repealed together with the Acts that made the Kings Proclamations of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament It was also Enacted That all who denied the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes in words should for the first offence forfeit their Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during pleasure For the second offence should incur the Pain of Praemunire and for the third offence be attainted of Treason But if any did in Writing Printing or by any overt Act or Deed endeavour to deprive the King of his Estate or Titles particularly of his Supremacy or to confer them on any other after the first of March next he was to be adjudged guilty of High Treason and if any of the Heirs of the Crown should usurp upon another or did endeavour to break the Succession of the Crown it was declared high Treason in them their Aiders and Abettors And all were to enjoy the Benefit of Clergy and the Priviledge of Sanctuary as they had it before King Henry the 8th's Reign excepting only such as were guilty of Murder Poisoning Burglary Robbing on the High-way the stealing of Cattel or stealing out of Churches or Chappels Poisoners were to suffer as other Murderers None were to be accused of Words but within a Month after they were spoken And those who called the French King by the Title of King of France were not to be esteemed guilty of the Pains of translating the Kings Authority or Titles on any other In Ch. Coll. Camb. among Parkers Papers This Act was occasioned by a Speech that Arch-bishop Cranmer had in Convocation in which he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves much to the study of the Scripture and to consider seriously what things were in the Church that needed Reformation that so they might throw out all the Popish trash that was not yet cast out Upon this some intimated to him that as long as the six Articles stood in force it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By it the Subjects were delivered from many fears they were under and had good hopes of a mild Government when in stead of procuring new severe Law the old ones were let fall The Council did also free the Nation of the jealousies they might have of them by such an abridgment of their own Power But others judged it had been more for the interest of the Government to have kept up these Laws still in force but to have restrained the execution of them This Repeal drew on another which was sent from the Commons on the 20th of December and was agreed to by the Lords on the 21st It was of an Act in the 28th year of the last King by which all Laws made while his Son was under 24 years of Age might be by his Letters Patents after he attained that Age annulled as if they had never been Which they altered thus That the King after that Age might by his Letters Patents void any Act of Parliament for the future but could not so void it from the beginning as to annul all things done upon it between the making and annulling of it which were still to be lawful Deeds The next Bill of a publick nature was concerning the Sacrament Act about the Communion Which was brought in and read the first time on the 12th of Novemb. the second time on the 15th and was twice read on the 17th And on the 24th a Bill was brought in for the Communion to be received in both kinds on the third of December it was read the second time and given to the Protector on the 5th read again and given to two
the Lords but laid aside at that time assurance being given that the Owners of those Lands should be fully secured The Reason of laying it aside was that since by Law the Bishop of Rome had no Authority at all in England it was needless to pass an Act against his Power in that particular for that seemed to assert his Power in other things and since they were resolved to reconcile the Nation to him it was said that it would be indecent to pass an Act that should call him only Bishop of Rome which was the Compellation given him during the Schism and it was preposterous to begin with a Limitation of his Power before they had acknowledged his Authority So this was laid aside and the Parliament ended on the 25th of May. But the Matters of the Convocation are next to be related Those of the Reformation complained every-where that the Disputes of the last Convocation had not been fairly carried that the most eminent Men of their Persuasion were detained in Prison and not admitted to it that only a few of them that had a right to be in the House were admitted to speak and that these were much interrupted So that it was now resolved to adjourn the Convocation for some time and to send the Prolocutor with some of their number to Oxford that the Disputations might be in the presence of that whole University And since Cranmer and Ridley were esteemed the most Learned Men of that Persuasion they were by a Warrant from the Queen removed from the Tower of London to the Prisons at Oxford And though Latimer was never accounted very Learned and was then about eighty Years of Age yet he having been a celebrated Preacher who had done the Reformation no less Service by his Labours in the Pulpit than others had done by their abler Pens he was also sent thither to bear his share in the Debates Some sent to Oxford to disput with Reformeed Bishops Those who were sent from the Convocation came to Oxford on the 13th of April being Friday They sent for those Bishops on Saturday and assigned them Monday Tuesday and Wednesday every one of them his day for the defending of their Doctrine but ordered them to be kept apart And that all Books and Notes should be taken from them Three Questions were to be disputed 1. Whether the natural Body of Christ was really in the Sacrament 2. Whether any other Substance did remain but the Body and Blood of Christ 3. Whetter in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the Dead and Living When Cranmer was first brought before them the Prolocutor made an Exhortation to him to return to the Unity of the Church To which he answered with such gravity and modesty that many were observed to weep He said He was as much for Unity as any but it must be an Unity in Christ and according to the Truth The Articles being shewed him he asked Whether by the Body of Christ they meant an Organical Body They answering It was the Body that was born of the Virgin Then he said he would maintain the Negative of these Questions On the 16th when the Dispute with Cranmer Cranmer Disputes was to begin Weston that was Prolocutor made a stumble in the beginning of his Speech for he said Ye are this day assembled to confound the detestable Heresie of the Verity of the Body of Christ in the Sacrament This Mistake set the whole Assembly a laughing but he recovered himself and went on he said It was not lawful to call these things in doubt since Christ had so expresly affirmed them that to doubt of them vvas to deny the Truth and Power of God Then Chedsey urged Cranmer with the words This is my Body To vvhich he answered That the Sacrament vvas effectually Christ's Body as broken on the Cross that is His Passion effectually applyed For the explanation of this he offered a large Paper containing his Opinion of which I need say nothing since it is a short abstract of what he writ on that Head formerly and of that a full account was given in the former Book There followed a long Debate about these words Oglethorp Weston and others urged him much that Christ making his Testament must be supposed to speak Truth and plain Truth and they run out largely on that Cranmer answered That figurative Speeches are true and when the Figures are clearly understood they are then plain likewise Many of Chrysostom's high Expressions about the Sacrament were also cited vvhich Cranmer said vvere to be understood of the Spiritual Presence received by Faith Uponthis much time was spent the Prolocutor carrying himself very undecently towards him calling him an unlearned unskilful and impudent Man There were also many in the Assembly that often hissed him down so that he could not be heard at all which he seemed to take no notice of but went on as often as the noise ceased Then they cited Tertullian's words The Flesh is fed by the Body and Blood of Christ that so the Soul may be nourished by God But he turned this against them and said hereby it was plain the Body as well as the Soul received Food in the Sacrament therefore the Substance of Bread and Wine must remain since the Body could not be fed by that Spiritual Presence of the Body of Christ Tresham put this Argument to him Christ said as he lived by the Father so they that eat his Flesh should live by him but he is by his Substance united to his Father therefore Christians must be united to his Substance To this Cranmer answered That the Similitude did not import an equality but a likeness of some sort Christ is essentially united to his Father but Believers are united to him by Grace and that in Baptism as well as in the Eucharist Then they talked long of some words of Hilary's Ambrose's and Justin's Then they charged him as having mistranslated some of the Passages of the Fathers in his Book from which he vindicated himself saying that he had all his Life in all manner of things hated falshood After the Dispute had lasted from the Morning till two of the Clock it was broke up and there was no small Triumph as if Cranmer had been confounded in the Opinion of all the Hearers which they had expressed by their Laughter and Hissing There were Notaries that took every thing that was said from whose Books Fox did afterwards print the account of it that is in his great Volume The next day Ridley And Ridley was brought out and Smith who was spoke of in the former Book was now very zealous to redeem the prejudice which that compliance vvas like to be to him in his Preferment So he undertook to dispute this day Ridley began with a Protestation declaring That vvhereas he had been formerly of another mind from vvhat he vvas then to maintain he had changed upon no worldly consideration but
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
were declared to be Heresies by the express and plain Words of Scripture All other Points not so decided were to be judged by the Parliament with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Act was in many things short of the Authority that King Henry had claimed and the severity of the Laws he had made The Title of Supream Head was left out of the Oath This was done to mitigate the Opposition of the Popish Party but besides the Queen her self had a scruple about it which was put in her Head by one Lever a famous Preacher among those of the Reformation of which Sands afterwards Bishop of Worcester complained to Parker in a Letter that is in the Collection Collection Number 2. There was no other punishment inflicted on those that denied the Queens Supremacy but the loss of their Goods and such as refused to take the Oath did only lose their Imployments whereas to refuse the Oath in King Henry's time brought them into a Praemunire and to deny the Supremacy was Treason The Bishops oppose the Queens Supremacy But against this Bill the Bishops made Speeches in the House of Lords I have seen a Speech of this kind was said to have been made by Arch-bishop Heath but it must be forgery put out in his Name for he is made to speak of the Supremacy as a new and unheard of thing which he who had sworn it so oft in King Henry's and King Edwards times could not have the face to say The rest of the Bishops opposed it the rather because they had lately declared so high for the Pope that it had been very indecent for them to have revolted so soon The Bishop of Duresme came not to this Parliament There were some hopes of gaining him to concur in the Reformation for in the Warrant the Queen afterwards gave to some for Consecrating the new Bishops he is first named and I have seen a Letter of Secretary Cecils to Parker that gives him some hope that Tonstal would joyn with them He had been offended with the Cruelties of the late Reign and though the resentments he had of his ill usage in the end of King Edwards time had made him at first concur more heartily to the restoring of Popery yet he soon fell off and declared his dislike of those violent Courses and neither did he nor Heath bring any in trouble within their Diocesses upon the account of Religion though it is hardly credible that there was no occasion for their being severe if they had been otherwise enclined to it The Bishop of Ely was also absent at the passing of this Act for though he would not consent to it yet he had done all that was prescribed by it so often before that it seems he thought it more decent to be absent than either to consent to it or to oppose it The Power that was added for the Queens Commissionating some to Execute her Supremacy gave the Rise to that Court which was commonly called the High Commission Court The beginning of the High Commission and was to be in the room of a single Person to whom with the Title of Lord Vice-gerent King Henry did delegate his Authority It seems the Clergy-men with whom the Queen consulted at this time thought this too much to be put in one Mans Hand and therefore resolved to have it shared to more Persons of whom a great many would certainly be Church-men so that they should not be altogether kept under by the hard Hands of the Laity who having groaned long under the Tyranny of an Ecclesiastical Yoke seemed now disposed to revenge themselves by bringing the Clergy as much under them for so Extreams do commonly rise from one another The Popish Clergy were now every where beginning to declaim against Innovation and Heresie Harpsfield had in a Sermon at Canterbury in February stirred the People much to Sedition and the Members belonging to that Cathedral had openly said that Religion should not nor could not be altered The Council also heard that the Prebendaries there had bought up many Arms so a Letter was written to Sir Thomas Smith to examine that matter Harpsfield was not put in Prison but received only a Rebuke There came also complaints from many other Places of many Seditious Sermons So the Queen following the Precedent her Sister had set her did in the beginning of March forbid all Preaching except by such as had a Licence under the Great Seal But lest the Clergy might now in the Convocation set out Orders in opposition to what the Queen was about to do she sent and required them under the Pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet Harpsfield that was Prolocutor with the rest of the lower House made an Address to the upper House to be by them presented to the Queen for the discharge of their Consciences They reduced the Particulars into five Articles 1. That Christ was corporally present in the Sacrament 2. That there was no other Substance there but his Body and Blood 3. That in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living 4. That St. Peter and his lawful Successors had the Power of feeding and governing the Church 5. That the Power of treating about Doctrine the Sacraments and the Order of Divine Worship belonged only to the Pastors of the Church These they had sent to the two Universities from whence they were returned with the Hands of the greatest part in them to the first four but it seems they thought it not fit to sign the last For now the Queen had resolved to have a publick Conference about Religion in the Abby-Church of Westminster The Arch-bishop of York was continued still to be of the Council so the Conference being proposed to him he after he had Communicated it to his Brethren accepted of it though with some unwillingness It was appointed that there should be nine of a side who should confer about these three Points 1. Whether it was not against the Word of God and the Custom of the Ancient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the People in the Common-Prayers and the Administration of the Sacraments 2. Whether every Church had not Authority to appoint change and take away Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same were done to edification 3. Whether it could be proved by the Word of God that in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living All was ordered to be done in Writing The Bishops as being actually in Office were to read their Papers first upon the first Point and the Reformed were to read theirs next and then they were to exchange their Papers without any discourse concerning them for the avoiding of jangling The next day they were to read their Papers upon the second and after that upon the third Head and then they were to answer one anothers Papers The Nine on both sides were the Bishops of Winchester
they should not be made necessary parts of Worship that they should not be too many nor dumb and vain nor should be kept up for gain and advantage These were the Arguments used on both sides But the Reformed being superiour in number the Bill passed in the House of Lords the Archbishop of York the Marquess of Winchester the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute the Bishops of London Worcester Ely Coventry Chester and Carlisle and the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley Wharton Rich and North and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting By this Act the new Book was to take place by St. John Baptist's day Another Act passed That the Queen might reserve to her self the Lands belonging to Bishopricks as they fall void giving the full value of them in Impropriated Tithes in lieu of them To this the Bishops dissented on the 7th of April when it passed in the House of Lords But when this came to the Commons there was great opposition made to it Many had observed that in Edward the 6th's time under a pretence of giving some Endowments to the Crown the Courtiers got all the Church-Lands divided amongst themselves so it was believed the use to be made of this would be the robbing of the Church without enriching the Crown After many days Debate on the 17th of April the House divided and 90 were against it but 133 were for it and so it passed On the 5th of May another Bill passed with the like opposition It was for annexing of all Religious Houses to the Crown After that there followed some private Acts for declaring the deprivation of the Popish Bishops in K. Edward's Time to have been good When they were restored by Q. Mary the Sentences passed against them were declared to have been void from the beginning and so all Leafes that were made by Ridley Poinet and Hooper and the Patents granted by the King of some of their Lands were annulled It was particularly remembred in the House of Commons that Ridley had made the confirming of these Leases his last desire when he was going to be tied to the Stake The ground on which the Sentences were declared void was because the Parties had appealed though in the Commission by virtue of which the Delegates deprived them they were impowered to proceed notwithstanding any Appeal To this not only the Bishops but the Marquess of Winchester and the Lords Stafford Dudley and North dissented It shews the great Moderation of this Government that this Marquess notwithstanding his adhering to the Popish Interest in the House of Lords was still continued Lord Treasurer which employment he held fourteen Years after this and died in the 97th Year of his Age leaving 103 issued from his own Body behind him He was the greatest instance of good Fortune and Dexterity that we find in the English History who continued Lord Treasurer in three such different Reigns as King Edward's Queen Mary's and Queen Elizabeth's were There was a Subsidy and two Tenths and two Fifteenths given by the Parliament with the Tonnage and Poundage for the Queen's Life and so on the 8th of May it was dissolved There were three Bills that did not pass in the House of Commons Bills that were proposed but not passed but upon what account they were laid aside it does not appear The one was for the Restoring of the Bishops that had been deprived by Q. Mary There were but three of these alive Barlow Scory and Coverdale the first of these had resigned and the last being old had no mind to return to his Bishoprick So perhaps it was not thought worth the while to make an Act for one Man's sake especially since there were so many vacant Bishopricks in the Queen's hands and more were like to fall The other Bill was for the restoring of all Persons that were deprived from their Benefices because they were married This the Queen odered to be laid aside of which Sands complained much in his Letter to Parker But yet the Queen took no notice of the Laws formerly made against their Marriage and promoted many married Priests particularly Parker himself There was no Law now in force against Clergy-mens marrying for Queen Mary had only repealed the Laws of Edward the 6th which allowed it but had made none concerning that Matter So there was nothing but the Canon Law against it and that was resolved to be condemned by continuing that Article of Religion concerning the Lawfulness of their Marriage among those that should be set out The next Bill that came to nothing was a new Act for giving Authority to 32 Persons to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws and digest them into a Body it was laid aside at the second Reading in the House of Commons and has slept ever since The Bishops refuse the Oath of Supremacy When the Parliament was over the Oath of Supremacy was soon after put to the Bishops and Clergy They thought if they could stick close to one another in refusing it the Queen would be forced to dispence with them Vita Parkeri and would not at one stroke turn out all the Bishops in England It does not appear how soon after the Dissolution of the Parliament the Oath was put to them but it was not long after for the last Collation Bonner gave of any Benefice was on the 6th of May this Year The Oath being offered to Heath Arch-Bishop of York to Bonner of London Thirleby of Ely Bourn of Bath and Wells Christopherson of Chichester Bain of Litchfield White of Winchester and Watson of Lincoln Oglethorpe of Carlisle Turbervile of Exeter Pool of Peterburgh Scot of Chester Pates of Worcester and Goldwell of St. Asaph they did all refuse to take it So that only Kitchin Bishop of Landaff took it There was some hope of Tonstall so it was not put to him till September but he being very old chose to go out with so much Company more for the decency of the thing than out of any scruple he could have about the Supremacy for which he had formerly writ so much They were upon their refusal put in Prison for a little while but they had all their Liberty soon after except Bonner White and Watson There were great Complaints made against Bonner that he had in many things in the prosecution of those that were presented for Heresy exceeded what the Law allowed so that it was much desired to have him made an Example But as the Queen was of her own nature Merciful so the Reformed Divines had learned in the Gospel not to render Evil for Evil nor to seek Revenge and as Nazianzen had of old exhorted the Orthodox when they had got an Emperor that favoured them not to retaliate on the Arrians for their former Cruelties So they thought it was for the honour of their Religion to give this real demonstration of the Conformity of their Doctrine to the Rules of the Gospel and of the Primitive Church by avoiding all Cruelty and
never defame them so much to be seen to fear it And of what strength an Act of Parliament is the Realm was taught in the case of her that we called Queen Ann where all such as spake against her in the Parliament-House although they did it by special Commandment of the King and spake that was truth yet they were fain to have a Pardon because that speaking was against an Act of Parliament Did you never know or here tell of any Man that for doing that the King our late Soveraign Lord willed devised and required to be done He that took pains and was commanded to do it was fain to sue for his Pardon and such other also as were doers in it and I could tell who it were Sure there hath been such a Case and I have been present when it hath been reasoned That the doing against an Act of Parliament excuseth not a Man even from the Case of Treason although a Man did it by the King's Commandment You can tell this to your remembrance when you think further of it and when it cometh to your remembrance you will not be best content with your self I believe to have advised me to enter the breach of an Act of Parliament without surety of Pardon although the King command it and were such indeed as it were no matter to do it at all And thus I answer the Letters with worldly civil Reasons and take your Mind and Zeal towards me to be as tender as may be and yet you see that the following of your Advice might make me lose my Bishoprick by mine own Act which I am sure you would I should keep and so would I as might stand with my Truth and Honesty and none otherwise as knoweth God who send you heartily well to fare Number 14. The Conclusion of Gardiner's Letter to the Protector against the lawfulness of the Injunctions Cotton Libr. Vesp D. 18. VVHether the King may command against the Common Law or an Act of Parliament there is never a Judg or other Man in the Realm ought to know more by experience of that the Lawyers have said than I. First My Lord Cardinal had obtained his Legacy by our late Soveraign Lord's Request at Rome yet being it was against the Laws of the Realm the Judges censured the Offence of Premunire which Matter I bore away and take it for a Law of the Realm because the Lawyers said so but my Reason digested it not The Lawyers for the confirmation of their Doings brought in a Case of my Lord Typtest an Earl he was and learned in Civil Laws who being Chancellor because in execution of the King's Commission he offended the Laws of the Realm he suffered on Tower-Hill they brought in the Examples of many Judges that had Fines set on their Heads in like case for transgression of the Laws by the King's Commandment and this I learned in this Case Since that time being of the Council when many Proclamations were devised against the Carriers out of Corn when it came to punishing the Offenders the Judges would answer it might not be by the Laws because the Act of Parliament gave liberty Wheat being under a price Whereupon at the last followed the Act of Proclamations in the passing whereof were many large words When the Bishop of Exeter and his Chancellor were by one Body brought into a Premunire I reasoned with the Lord Audley then Chancellor so far as he bad me hold my peace for fear of entring a Premunire my self But I concluded that although I must take it as of their Authority that it is Common Law yet I could not see how a Man authorised by the King as since the King's Majesty hath taken upon him the Supremacy every Bishop is that Man could fall in a Premunire I reasoned once in the Parliament House where was free Speech without danger and there the Lord Audley Chancellor then to satisfie me because I was in some secret estimation as he knew Thou art a good Fellow Bishop quoth he look the Act of the Supremacy and there the King's doings be restrained to Spiritual Jurisdiction And in an other Act No Spiritual Law shall have place contrary to a Common Law or an Act of Parliament And if this were not quoth he the Bishops would enter in with the King and by means of his Supremacy order the Law as you listed but we will provide quoth he that the Premunire shall never go off your Heads This I bare away there and held my peace Since that time in a Case of Jewels I was fain with the Emperor's Ambassador Chapinius when he was here and in the Emperor's Court also to defend and maintain by Commandment that the King's Majesty was not above his Laws and therefore the Jeweller although he had the King's Bill signed yet it would not serve because it was not obtained after the Order of the Law in which Matter I was very much troubled Even this time twelve-month when I was in Commission with my Lord great Master and the Earl of Southampton for the altering of the Court of Augmentations there was my Lord Montague and other of the King 's Learned Council of whom I learned what the King might do against an Act of Parliament and what danger it was to them that medled It is fresh in my Memory and they can tell whether I say true or no and therefore being learned in so notable Causes I wrote in your absence therein as I had learned by hearing the Common Lawyers speak whose Judgments rule these Matters howsoever my reason can digest them When I wrote thereof the Matter was so reasonable as I have been learned by the Lawyers of the Realm that I trusted my Lords would have staied till your Graces return Number 15. A Letter from the Duke of Somerset to the Lady Mary in the beginning of King Edward's Reign Madam my humble Commendations to your Grace premised THese may be to signify unto the same Cotton Libr. Faustin C. 2. that I have received your Letters of the second of this present by Jane your Servant reknowledging my self thereby much bound unto your Grace nevertheless I am very sorry to perceive that your Grace should have or conceive any sinister or wrong Opinion in me and others which were by the King your late Father and our most gracious Master put in trust as Executors of his Will albeit the truth of our doings being known to your Grace as it seemeth by your said Letter not to be I trust there shall be no such fault found in us as in the same your Grace hath alleadged and for my part I know none of us that will willingly neglect the full execution of every Jot of his said Will as far as shall and may stand with the King our Master's Honour and Surety that now is otherwise I am sure that your Grace nor none other his Faithful Subjects would have it take place not doubting but our Doings and
the poor Man and his Heirs put from their Right which his Majesty wisheth to be considered And albeit he thinketh that the King your Master being under Age cannot himself by the order of the Law conclude upon any thing now in his Minority that shall be of due force and strength able to bind him and his Country when he shall come to his perfect Age. Yet taking that his Tutors being authorised thereto by the common Assent of your Parliament may go through and conclude upon these or like things in his Name his Majesty thinketh it will do well when his Subjects shall be recompenced of the Wrongs they have hitherto sustained that some order be devised for the administration of Justice hereafter in like Cases As touching the Confirmation of the Treaty considering that the same was first made between the Emperor and King Henry the Eighth and not ratified by the King your Master since his Father's Death his Majesty thinketh that he hath most cause to require the same Wherefore because as I told you even now he thinketh that these things the King himself should conclude upon during his Minority cannot be of sufficient force if his Tutors shall be by the Authority of your Parliament enabled thereto his Majesty is content the Treaty be confirmed by them in the King's Name and by the Prince of Spain in such form as shall be thought best for both Parties As to the comprehension of Bulloign ye must know that we have a Treaty with France as well as with you which the Emperor cannot without some touch of his Honour break without just Grounds And albeit his Majesty would be loath to see the King his good Brother forgoe either that Peece or any other Jot of his Right yet can he not enter this Defence unless he would break with France out of hand which in respect of his other Affairs he cannot yet do howbeit he will gladly assist his good Brother in any other thing the best he may and will not fail to shew him all the Pleasure he can with regard to his Honour but with Bulloign he cannot meddle at this time And here he staying Is this the Emperor's resolute and full Answer Monsieur d' Arras quoth I. Yea quoth he wherewith he prayeth the King his good Brother to rest satisfied and take it in good part Albeit quoth I I have no Commission to make any Reply thereto because it was not known to your Grace what the Emperor's Resolution should be yet in the way of talk I will be bold to say my mind herein We have Monsieur d' Arras quoth I always esteemed the Emperor's Friendship and desired the observation of the Treaties and the entertainment of the Amity as a thing necessary and common to both the Parties for the better establishment whereof and that now and in this time some good Fruit to the benefit of both might appear to the World to follow of the same I was sent hither which was the chiefest cause of my coming And because that the Amity between both Princes might be the firmer and that all Doubts being taken away no cause of Quarrel shall be left we thought best to put you in mind of the Confirmation and Revisitation of the Treaty to the intent that by the one the World might see an establishment of our Friendship by our deed and that by the other one of us might understand another and consider whether any thing were to be added for the Commodity of both Parties which I suppose standeth you as much upon to desire as it doth us And whereas ye say that the King's Majesty because he is under Age cannot conclude or go through with any thing that shall be of sufficient force I must needs tell you plainly That ye touch his Majesty's Honour over-near herein for we think that the Majesty of a King is of such efficacy that he hath even the same Authority and full Power at the first hour of his Birth that he hath thirty Years after And what your Laws are I know not but sure I am that by our Laws whatsoever is done by the King in his Minority or by his Ministers in his Name is of no less force and strength than if it had been done in time of his full Age and Years if once the Great Seal of his Realm have passed there is no Remedy but needs must he stand thereto Marry let the Ministers take heed what they do and look that they may be able to discharge themselves towards him of their Doings if he shall require account of them when he cometh to Age for it is they must answer him but he must needs stand to whatsoever they have counselled him to agree unto during his Minority And to prove that our Laws giveth him the same Authority now that he shall have when he cometh to his perfect Age if any Man either for instruction of Learning or any other Cause should presume to lay hands on or touch his Majesty in way of correction he should by Law be taken for a Traitor And if the Matter were as ye take it we should then be in a strange and evil case for neither might we conclude Peace League or Treaty nor make Laws or Statutes during the King's Minority that should be of sufficient force to bind him and his to the observation of the same But ye mistake the Matter much and therefore if the Emperor mind to proceed to this Confirmation he may or otherwise do as it shall please him And as touching my Case quoth I ye must understand I did not move it without some just ground for remembring that all your Commissioners and all ours being together at Vtrecht for the Esclarcisement of the Treaty although the words of the Treaty were plain enough and could receive none other interpretation than was there plainly written yet would ye needs understand the Article for common Enmity in case of Invasion after your own minds And whereas by the words of the Treaty no mention is made of any number and therefore with howsoever few in number the Invasion be made ought the Invaders to be taken for common Enemies Your Commissioners did nevertheless interpret the Matter at their pleasure and would needs prescribe a number of 8000 Men under which number of Invasion were made the Treaties in this case should not stand to any force And like-as ye put a doubt here where none was to be found so thought I ye might do in other things were they never so plain and that moved me to put this case to see whether ye understood this Point as ye ought to do after the literal sense and partly to know your minds therein because perhaps the Matter hath been already in ure This I say was the occasion why I put further this Question and not for any mistrust of the Emperor's Friendship whom I must confess we have always found our Well-willer and so we doubt not he will continue and
kill the Queen for which he justly suffered Of this I find nothing on Record so it must depend on our Author's Credit which is not infallible 75. He says The Imposture of Elizabeth Crofts Ibid. was set up by the Persuasion of many of the Hereticks and when it was discovered she confessed she had been set on to it by others and by one Drake in particular but they all fled In the Account that was then published of that Imposture Drake only is accused for it what he was does not appear to me for I have never found him mentioned but on this Occasion so there was no reason to transfer the private Guilt of this Conspiracy on a whole Party as our Author does though upon his Credit one of our Writers has also done it 76. He says Those in whose hands the Church-Lands were Pag. 243. had great apprehensions of their being forced to restore them because the Queen had restored all the Land that were in her hands and had again converted the Collegiat Church of Westminster into an Abbey But to prevent the ill Effects that might have followed on this the Cardinal did in the Pope's Name absolve them from all Censures for possessing those Lands and that was confirmed by Letters sent over from the Pope He observes the order of Time very exactly when he sets the Queen's restoring the Church-Lands and founding the Abbey of Westminster as the occasions of the Fears the Laity were in of being forced to restore the rest of the Church-Lands and of the Cardinal 's absolving them from all Censures for keeping them still in their hands The Order in which this was done was thus In Novemb. 1554 in the Act of Reconciliation with the See of Rome there was a special Proviso made for the Church-Lands which the Cardinal confirmed in the Pope's Name In the Year after that the Queen gave up into the Cardinal Hands all the Church-Lands that belonged to the Crown and two Years after she founded the Abbey of Westminster so little influence had these things on the other that were done before But he was grosly mistaken when he said the Pope approved All for he in plain terms refused to ratify what the Cardinal had done and soon after set out a severe Bull Cursing and Condemning all that held any Church-Lands 77. He says Pag. 244. All the Bishops being sensible of their Schismatical way of entring into their Sees did desire and obtain a Confirmation from the Pope Kitchin Bishop of Landaff only excepted who afterwards relapsed into Heresy under Queen Elizabeth and says it is likely the want of this Confirmation made him be more easily overcome This our Author wrote being a thing very probable and seldom do his Authorities for what he asserts rise higher It was also a pretty strain of his Wit to make the omitting of it fall singly on the only Bishop that conformed under Queen Elizabeth But it is certain there was no such thing done at all for if any had done it Bonner was as likely as any other since as none had been more faulty in King Henry's Time so none studied to redeem that with more servile compliances than he did yet there is nothing of this recorded in his Register which continues entire to this day Pag. 246. 78. He says The State of the Universities was restored to what it had been and Oxford in particular by Petrus a Soto's means who was in the Opinion of all much preferred to P. Martyr He that gathered the Antiquities of Oxford though no partial Writer on this occasion represents the state of that University very differently that there were almost no Divines in it and scarce any publick Lectures But when Sanders writ his Poem the Spanish Councils were so much depended on by him and his Party that it was fit to put that Complement on the Nation concerning Petrus a Soto Whether it was true or false was a Circumstance which he generously overlook'd for most part Pag. 248. 79. He says Queen Elizabeth had done many things in Queen Mary's Time both against her Person and Government He knew this was so false that there was never a Circumstance or a Presumption brought against her but the Information which Wiat gave hoping thereby to save himself and yet he denied that on the Scaffold If there had been any colour to have justified the taking away her Life both the Queen and her Counsellors were as much enclined to it as our Author himself was Ibid. 80. He says King Henry said in Parliament she was not and could not be his Daughter for a secret Reason which he had revealed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This was aptly enough said by a Writer that had emancipated himself from the Laws of Truth and Veracity to appeal to such a Story yet to have made it pass the better he should have named other Circumstances for such a thing cannot be easily believed since after Ann Boleyn's Death the King continued to treat Elizabeth still as his Daughter so that when she writ to his next Queen she subscribed Daughter she was in all things educated with the Care and State that became a King's Child and was both by Act of Parliament and by his Will declared to be so Now to think that such a King would have done all this after he had in Parliament declared that she could not be his Child is a little too coarse to be believed and so should have been supported with more than ordinary Proofs Ibid. 81. He says She came to the Crown meerly by virtue of the Act of Parliament without being Legitimated In this she and her Sister were upon the same Level for neither of them were declared Legitimate so this was not to be objected to the one more than to the other Sister Pag. 249. 82. He says Queen Mary being declared by Act of Parliament in the beginning of her Reign Legitimate and her Mothers Marriage being declared good Elizabeth was thereby of new Illegitimated yet she never repealed the Laws against her Title but kept the Crown meerly upon the Authority of an Act of Parliament without having any regard to her Birth Queen Mary came to the Crown being in the same Condition and was either a lawful Queen before that Act was made or else that Act was of no force if it had not the Royal Assent given by a lawful Queen So Queen Elizabeth was as much Queen before any such Act could have passed as afterwards and therefore since it was not necessary for the securing her Title it was a sign of her tenderness of her Father's Memory to which Queen Mary had no regard not to revive the remembrance of things that must have turned so much to his dishonour as that would have done 83. He says Pag. 250. Queen Mary not being able to prevent her Sisters Succession sent a Message to her on her Death-Bed desiring her to pay her Debts and
may clearly see he would bribe him into no Opinion or Party by false or indirect Arts But since Men are generally so apt to let some easie Notions enter into their Minds which will pre-engage their Affections and for most part those who set themselves to gain Proselites do begin with such Arts it will not be amiss to give the Reader such an account of these as may prepare him against them that so he may with a clearer mind consider what is now to be delivered to him concerning the Reformation of Religion among us I shall begin with that which is most commonly urged that the whole Church being one Body the Changes that were made in Religion did break that Vnity and dissolve the Bond by which the Catholick Church is to be knit together and that therefore the first Reformers began and we still continue a Schisme in the Church In answer to this it is to be considered that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church are obliged to instruct their People in the true Faith of Christ according to the Scriptures The nature of their Function being a Sacred Trust binds them to this they were also at their Consecration engaged to it by a formal Sponsion according to the Questions and Answers that are in the Roman Pontifical to this day Pastors owe it as a Debt to their People to teach them according to the Scriptures They owe a Charity to their Brethren and are to live with them in the terms of Brotherly Love and Friendly Correspondence but if that cannot be had on easier terms than the concealing necessary Truths and the delivering gross errors to those committed to their charge it is certain that they ought not to purchase it at so dear a rate When the Pastors of this Church saw it over-run with errors and corruptions they were obliged by the duty they owed to God and to their People to discover them and to undeceive their misled Flocks It is of great importance to maintain Peace and Vnity but if a Party in the Church does set up some Doctrines and Practises that do much endanger the Salvation of Souls and makes advantages by these so that there is no hope left to gain them by rational and softer Methods then as St. Peter was to be withstood to his Face in a lesser matter much more are those who pretend no higher than to be his Successors to be withstood when the things are of great moment and consequence When Heresies sprung up in the Primitive Church we find the neighbouring Bishops condemned them without staying for the concurrence of other Churches as in the Case of Samosatenus Arius and Pelagius and even when the greatest part of the Church was become Semi-Arian and many great Councils chiefly that at Ariminum consisting of above 800 Bishops as some say had through ignorance and fear complied the Orthodox Bishops did not forbear to instruct those committed to their care according to the true Faith A general concurrence is a thing much to be laboured for but when it cannot be had every Bishop must then do his duty so as to be answerable to the chief Bishop of Souls So that instead of being led away by so slight a prejudice we must turn our Enquiries to this Whether there were really such abuses in the Church as did require a Reformation and whether there was any reason to hope for a more general concurrence in it In the following History the Reader will see what corruptions were found to be both in the Doctrine and Worship of this Church from whence he may infer what need there was of Reformation And it is very plain that they had no reason to expect the concurrence of other Churches for the Council of Trent had already made a great progress and it was very visible that as the Court of Rome governed all things there so they were resolved to admit of no effectual Reformation of any considerable matters but to establish by a more formal decision those errors and abuses that had given so much scandal to the Christian World for so many Ages This being the true state of the Case it is certain that if there were really great corruptions either in Belief or Manners in this Church then the Bishops were bound to reform them since the backwardness of others in their duty could not excuse them from doing theirs when they were clearly convinced of it So that the Reader is to shake off this prejudice and only to examine whether there was really such need of a Reformation since if that be true it is certain the Bishops of this as well as of other Churches were bound to set about it and the faultiness of some could be no excuse to the rest The second Prejudice is That the Reformation was begun and carried on not by the major part of the Bishops and Clergy but by a few selected Bishops and Divines who being supported by the Name of the Kings Authority did frame things as they pleased and by their Interest at Court got them to be Enacted in Parliament and after they had removed such Bishops as opposed them then they procured the Convocation to consent to what was done So that upon the matter the Reformation was the Work of Cranmer with a few more of his Party and not of this Church which never agreed wholly to it till the Bishops were so modelled as to be compliant to the designs of the Court. In short the resolution of this is to be taken from a common Case when the major part of a Church is according to the Conscience of the Supream Civil Magistrate in an Error and the lesser part is in the right The Case is not hard if well understood for in the whole Scripture there is no promise made to the major part of the Pastors of the Church and there being no Divine Promise made about it it is certain that the Nature of Man is such that Truth separated from Interest hath few Votaries but when it is opposite to it it must have a very small Party So that most of those things which needed Reformation being such as added much to the Wealth and Power of the Clergy it had been a wonder indeed if the greater part had not opposed it In thâ—t Case as the smaller part were not to depart from their Sentiments because opposed in them by a more numerous Party that was too deeply concerned in the matter so it was both natural for them and very reasonable to take Sanctuary in the Authority and Protection of the Prince and the Law That Princes have an Authority in things Sacred was so universally agreed to in King Henry's Reign and was made out upon such clear Evidence of Reason and Precedents both in the Jewish State and in the Roman Empire when it turned Christian that this ground was already gained It is the first Law in Justinians Code made by Theodosius when he came to the Empire That all should every
prayed in general for their quiet Rest and their speedy Resurrection Yet these Prayers growing as all superstitious devices do to be more considered some began to frame an Hypothesis to justifie them by that of the Thousand Years being generally exploded And in St. Austin's time they began to fancy there was a state of punishment even for the Good in another Life out of which some were sooner and some later freed according to the measure of their Repentance for their Sins in this Life But he tells us this was taken up without any sure ground and that it was no way certain Yet by Visions Dreams and Tales the belief of it was so far promoted that it came to be generally received in the next Age after him and then as the People were told that the Saints interceded for them so it was added that they might intercede for their departed Friends And this was the Foundation of all that Trade of Souls-Masses and Obits Now the deceased King had acted like one who did not believe that these things signified much otherwise he was to have but ill reception in Purgatory having by the subversion of the Monasteries deprived the departed Souls of the benefit of the many Masses that were said for them in these Houses yet it seems at his death he would make the matter sure and to shew he intended as much benefit to the Living as to himself being dead he took care that there should be not only Masses and Obits but so many Sermons at Windsor and a frequent distribution of Alms for the relief of the Poor But upon this occasion it came to be examined what value there was in such things Yet the Arch-bishop plainly saw that the Lord Chancellor would give great opposition to every motion that should be made for any further alteration for which he and all that Party had this specious pretence always in their Mouths That their late Glorious King was not only the most learned Prince but the most learned Divine in the World for the flattering him did not end with his Life and that therefore they were at least to keep all things in the condition wherein he had left them till the King were of Age. And this seemed also necessary on Considerations of State For Changes in matter of Religion might bring on Commotions and Disorders which they as faithful Executors ought to avoid But to this it was answered That as their late King was infinitely learned for both Parties flattered him dead as well as living so he had resolved to make great Alterations and was contriving how to change the Mass into a Communion that therefore they were not to put off a thing of such consequence wherein the Salvation of Peoples Souls was so much concerned but were immediately to set about it But the Lord Chancellor gave quickly great advantage against himself to his Enemies who were resolved to make use of any Error he might be guilty of so far as to ease themselves of the trouble he was like to give them The Kings Funeral being over The Creation of Peers order was given for the Creation of Peers The Protector was to be Duke of Somerset the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Northampton the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Warwick the Lord Wriothesley Earl of Southampton beside the new Creation of the Lords Seimour Rich Willoughby of Parham and Sheffield the rest it seems excusing themselves from new Honours as it appeared from the Deposition of Paget that many of those on whom the late King had intended to confer Titles of Honour had declined it formerly 1547. Feb. 20. Coronation On the 20th of Feb. being Shrove-Sunday the King was Crowned by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury according to the form that was agreed to The Protector serving in it as Lord Steward the Marquess of Dorset as Lord Constable and the Earl of Arundel as Earl Marshal deputed by the Protector A Pardon was proclaimed out of which the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pole and some others were excepted The first Business of importance after the Coronation The Lord Chancellor is removed from his Office was the Lord Chancellors fall Who resolving to give himself wholly to Matters of State had on the 18th of Feb. put the Great Seal to a Commission directed to Sir Richard Southwell Master of the Rolls John Tregonnel Esq Master of Chancery and to John Oliver and Anthony Bellasis Clerks Masters of Chancery setting forth that the Lord Chancellor being so employed in the Affairs of State that he could not attend on the hearing of Causes in the Court of Chancery these three Masters or any two of them were empowered to execute the Lord Chancellors Office in that Court in as ample manner as if he himself were present only their Decrees were to be brought to the Lord Chancellor to be Signed by him before they were Enrolled This being done without any Warrant from the Lord Protector and the other Executors it was judged a high presumption in the Lord Chancellor thus to devolve on others that Power which the Law had trusted in his Hands The Persons named by him encreased the offence which this gave two of them being Canonists so that the common Lawyers looked upon this as a President of very high and ill consequence And being encouraged by those who had no good will to the Chancellor they petitioned the Council in this Matter and complained of the evil consequences of such a Commission and set forth the fears that all the Students of the Law were under of a Change that was intended to be made of the Laws of England The Council remembred well they had given no Warrant at all to the Lord Chancellor for the issuing out any such Commission so they sent it to the Judges and required them to examine the Commission with the Petition grounded upon it Who delivered their Opinions on the last of Feb. That the Lord Chancellor ought not without Warrant from the Council to have set the Seal to it Feb. 28. and that by his so doing he had by the Common Law forfeited his Place to the King and was liable to Fine and Imprisonment at the Kings pleasure March 6. This lay sleeping till the sixth of March and then the Judges Answer being brought to the Council Signed with all their Hands they entred into a debate how far it ought to be punished The Lord Chancellor carried it very high and as he had used many Menaces to those who had petitioned against him and to the Judges for giving their Opinions as they did so he carried himself insolently to the Protector and told him he held his Place by a better Authority than he held his That the late King being empow'red to it by Act of Parliament had made him not only Chancellor but one of the Governours of the Realm during his Sons Minority and had by his Will given none of them Power over the rest to throw
of Religion in so unsetled a condition and that he had resolved to have changed the Mass into a Communion besides many other things And in the Act of Parliament which he had procured see Pag. 263. first Part for giving force and Authority to his Proclamations a Proviso was added That his Sons Councellors while he should be under Age might set out Proclamations of the same Authority with these which were made by the King himself This gave them a full Power to proceed in that Work in which they resolved to follow the method begun by the late King of sending Visitors over England with Injunctions and Articles A Visitation is made over England They ordered them six several Circuits or Precincts The first was London Westminster Norwich and Ely The second Rochester Canterbury Chichester and Winchester The third Sarum Exeter Bath Bristol and Glocester The fourth York Durham Carlisle and Chester The fifth Peterborough Lincoln Oxford Coventry and Litchfield And the sixth Wales Worcester and Hereford For every Circuit there were two Gentlemen a Civilian a Divine and a Register They were designed to be sent out in the beginning of May as appears by a Letter to be found in the Collection Collection Number 7. written the fourth of May to the Arch-bishop of York There is also in the Registers of London another of the same strain Yet the Visitation being put off for some Months this Inhibition was suspended on the 16th of May till it should be again renued The Letter sets forth That the King being speedily to order a Visitation over his whole Kingdom therefore neither the Arch-bishop nor any other should exercise any jurisdiction while that Visitation lasted And since the minds of the People were held in great suspence by the Controversies they heard so variously tossed in the Pulpits that for quieting these the King did require all Bishops to preach no where but in their Cathedrals and that all other Clergy-men should not preach but in their Collegiate or Parochial Churches unless they obtained a special Licence from the King to that effect The design of this was to make a distinction between such as preached for the Reformation of abuses and such as did it not The one were to be encouraged by Licences to preach where-ever they desired to do it but the others were restrained to the Places where they were Incumbents But that which of all other things did most damp those who designed the Reformation was the misery to which they saw the Clergy reduced and the great want of able Men to propagate it over England For the Rents of the Church were either so swallowed up by the suppression of Religious Houses to whom the Tithes were generally appropriated or so basely alienated by some lewd or superstitious Incumbents who to preserve themselves being otherwise obnoxious or to purchase Friends had given away the best part of their Revenues and Benefices that there was very little encouragement left for those that should labour in the Work of the Gospel And though many Projects were thought on for remedying this great abuse yet those were all so powerfully opposed that there was no hope left of getting it remedied till the King should come to be of Age and be able by his Authority to procure the Church-men a more proportioned maintenance Two things only remained to be done at present The one was to draw up some Homilies for the instruction of the People which might supply the defects of their Incumbents Some Homilies compiled together with the providing them with such Books as might lead them into the understanding of the Scripture The other was to select the most eminent Preachers they could find and send them over England with the Visitors who should with more Authority instruct the Nation in the Principles of Religion Therefore some were appointed to compile those Homilies and Twelve were at first agreed on being about those Arguments which were in themselves of the greatest importance The 1st was about the use of the Scriptures The 2d of the misery of Mankind by sin 3d. Of their Salvation by Christ 4th Of True and Lively Faith 5th Of Good Works 6th Of Christian Love and Charity 7th Against Swearing and chiefly Perjury 8th Against Apostacy or declining from God 9th Against the fear of Death 10th An Exhortation to Obedience 11th Against Whoredom and Adultery setting forth the state of Marriage how necessary and honourable it was And the 12th against Contention chiefly about Matters of Religion They intended to set out more afterwards but these were all that were at this time finished The chief design in them was to acquaint the People with the method of Salvation according to the Gospel in which there were two dangerous Extremes at that time that had divided the World The greatest part of the ignorant Commons seemed to consider their Priests as a sort of People who had such a secret trick of saving their Souls as Mountebanks pretend in the curing of Diseases and that there was nothing to be done but to leave themselves in their hands and the business could not miscarry This was the chief Basis and support of all that superstition which was so prevalent over the Nation The other Extreme was of some corrupt Gospellers who thought if they magnified Christ much and depended on his Merits and Intercession they could not perish which way soever they led their Lives In these Homilies therefore special care was taken to rectifie these errors And the Salvation of Mankind was on the one hand wholly ascribed to the Death and Sufferings of Christ to which Sinners were taught to fly and to trust to it only and to no other devices for the pardon of sin They were at the same time taught that there was no Salvation through Christ but to such as truly repented and lived according to the Rules of the Gospel The whole matter was so ordered to teach them that avoiding the hurtful errors on both hands they might all know the true and certain way of attaining Eternal Happiness For the understanding the New Testament Erasmus's Paraphrase which was translated into English was thought the most profitable and easiest Book Therefore it was resolved that together with the Bible there should be one of these in every Parish-Church over England They next considered the Articles and Injunctions that should be given to the Visitors The greatest part of them were only the renewing what had been ordered by King Henry during Cromwel's being Vicegerent which had been much neglected since his fall For as there was no Vicegerent so there was few Visitations appointed after his death by the Kings Authority but the executing former Injunctions was left to the several Bishops who were for the most part more careful about the six Articles than about the Injunctions So now all the Orders about renouncing the Popes Power and asserting the Kings Supremacy about Preaching teaching the Elements of Religion in the Vulgar
be found in the Collection In end Sentence was given allowing the second Marriage in that Case and by consequence confirming the Marquess of Northampton's Marriage to his second Wife who upon that was suffered to cohabit with him Yet four years after he was advised to have a special Act of Parliament for confirming this Sentence of which mention shall be made in its due time and Place Some further advance in the Reformation The next thing that came under consideration was the great contradiction that was in most of the Sermons over England Some were very earnest to justifie and maintain all the old Rites that yet remained and others were no less hot to have them laid aside So that in London especially the People were wonderfully distracted by this variety among their Teachers The Ceremonies of Candlemass and their observance of Lent with the Rites used on Palm-Sunday Good-Friday and Easter were now approaching Those that were against them condemned them as superstitious Additions to the Worship of God invented in the dark Ages when an outward Pageantry had been the chief thing that was looked after But others set out the good use that might be made of these things and taught that till they were abolished by the Kings Authority they ought to be still observed In a Visitation that had been made when I cannot learn only it seems to have been about the end of King Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only a Positive Law Several Directions were also given about the use of the Ceremonies and some hints as if they were not to be long continued and all Wakes and Plough-Mondays were suppressed since they drew great Assemblies of People together which ended in drinking and quarrelling These I have also inserted in the Collection Number 21. having had a Copy of the Articles left at the Visitation of the Deanry of Doncaster communicated to me by the favour of a most learned Physitian and curious Antiquary Dr. Nathaniel Johnston who sent me this with several other Papers out of his generous zeal for contributing every thing in his power to the perfecting of this Work The Country People generally loved all these Shews Processions and Assemblies as things of diversion and judged it a dull business only to come to Church for Divine Worship and the hearing of Sermons therefore they were much delighted with the gayity and cheerfulness of those Rites But others observing that they kept up all these things just as the Heathens did their Plays and Festivities for their Gods judged them contrary to the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion and therefore were earnest to have them removed This was so effectually represented to the Council by Cranmer that an Order was sent to him about it He sent it to Bonner who being Dean of the Colledge of Bishops in the Province of Canterbury was to transmit all such Orders over the whole Province By it the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday were forbid to be used any longer And this was signified by Bonner to Thirleby Bishop of Westminster on the 28th of June as appears by the Register After this on the 6th of February A Proclamation against those who Innovated without Authority a Proclamation was issued out against such as should on the other hand rashly innovate or perswade the People from the old accustomed Rites under the Pains of Imprisonment and other Punishments at the Kings pleasure excepting only the formerly mentioned Rites to which are added the creeping to the Cross on Good-Friday taking Holy Bread and Water and any other that should be afterwards at any time certified by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the other Bishops in the Kings Name to be laid aside And for preventing the mischiefs occasioned by rash Preachers none were to preach without Licence from the King or his Visitors the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of the Diocess where they lived excepting only Incumbents preaching in their own Parishes Those who preached otherwise were to be imprisoned till Order were given for their punishment and the inferior Magistrates were required to see to the execution of these Orders This Proclamation which is in the Collection Number 22. was necessary for giving Authority to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Letters which were censured as a great presumption for him without any publick Order to appoint changes in Sacred Rites Some observed that the Council went on making Proclamations with arbitrary Punishments though the Act was repealed that had formerly given so great Authority to them To this it was answered That the King by his Supremacy might still in matters of Religion make new Orders and add Punishments upon the Transgressors yet this was much questioned though universally submitted to The general taking away of all Images Number 23. On the 11th of Feb. there was a Letter sent from the Council to the Arch-bishop for a more considerable Change There were every where great Heats about the removing of Images which had been abused to superstition Some affirming and others denying that their Images had been so abused There were in the Churches some Images of so strange a nature that it could not be denied that they had been abused Such was the Image of the Blessed Trinity which was to be censed on the day of the Innocents Processionale in Festo Innocentium by him that was made the Bishop of the Children This shews it was used on other days in which it is like it was censed by the Bishop where he was present How this Image was made can only be gathered from the Prints that were of it at that time In which the Father is represented sitting on the one hand as an old Man with a Triple Crown and Rayes about him the Son on the other hand as a young Man with a Crown and Rayes and the Blessed Virgin between them and the Emblem of the Holy Ghost a Dove spread over her Head So it is represented in a fair Book of the Hours according to the use of Sarum printed Anno 1526. The impiety of this did raise horror in most Mens Minds when that unconceivable Mystery was so grosly expressed Besides the taking the Virgin into it was done in pursuance to what had been said by some blasphemous Friars of her being assumed into the Trinity In another Edition of these it is represented by three Faces formed in one Head These things had not been set up by any publick Warrant but having been so long in practice they stood upon the general Plea that was for keeping the Traditions of the Church for it was said that the Promises made to the Church were the same in all Ages and that therefore every Age of the Church had an equal Right to them But for the other Images it was urged against them that they had been all consecrated with such Rites and Prayers that it was certain
having examined it reported that the Process had been legally carried on and the Sentence justly given and that there was no good reason why the Appeal should be received and therefore they rejected it This being reported to the Council they sent for Bonner in the beginning of February and declared to him that his Appeal was rejected and that the Sentence against him was in full force still But the Business of Bulloigne was that which pressed them most Ambassadors sent to the Emperor They misdoubting as was formerly shewn that Paget had not managed that matter dexterously and earnestly with the Emperor sent on the 18th of October Sir Tho. Cheyney and Sir Phil. Hobbey to him to entreat him to take Bulloigne into his protection they also sent over the Earl of Huntington to command it with the addition of a thousand Men for the Garrison When the Ambassadors came to the Emperor they desired leave to raise 2000 Horse and 3000 Foot in his Dominions for the preservation of Bulloigne Cotton Libr. Galba B. 12. The Emperor gave them very good words but insisted much on his League with France and referred them to the Bishop of Arras who told them plainly the thing could not be done So Sir Tho. Cheyney took his leave of the Emperor who at parting desired him to represent to the Kings Council how necessary it was to consider matters of Religion again that so they might be all of one mind for to deal plainly with them till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he desired to do And now the Council saw clearly they had not been deceived by Paget in that Particular and therefore resolved to apply themselves to France for a Peace But now the Earl of Warwick falling off wholly from the Popish Party The Earl of Southampton leaves the Court. the Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent He was neither restored to his Office of Chancellor nor made Lord Treasurer that Place which was vacant by the Duke of Somersets Fall being now given to the Lord St. John who soon after was made Earl of Wilt-shire nor was he made one of those who had charge of the Kings Person So he began to lay a Train against the Earl of Warwick but he was too quick for him and discovered it upon which he left the Court in the night and it was said he poisoned himself or pined away with discontent for he died in July after A new Office for Ordinations So now the Reformation was ordered to be carried on and there being one part of the Divine Offices not yet reformed that is concerning the giving Orders some Bishops and Divines brought now together by a Session of Parliament were appointed to prepare a Book of Ordination A Session of Parliament But now I turn to the Parliament which sate down on the 4th of November In it a severe Law was made against unlawful Assemblies that if any An Act against Tumultuary Assemblies to the number of twelve should meet together unlawfully for any matter of State and being required by any lawful Magistrate should not disperse themselves it should be Treason and if any broke Hedges or violently pulled up Pales about Inclosures without lawful Authority it should be Felony It was also made Felony to gather the People together without Warrant by ringing of Bells or sound of Drums and Trumpets or the firing of Beacons There was also a Law made against Prophecies concerning the King or his Council since by these the People were disposed to sedition for the first offence it was to be punished by Imprisonment for a year and 10 l. Fine For the second it was Imprisonment during Life with the forfeiture of Goods and Chattels All this was on the account of the Tumults the former year and not with any regard to the Duke of Somersets security as some have without any reason fancied for he had now no Interest in the Parliament nor was he in a condition any more to apprehend Tumults against himself being stript of his so much envied greatness And against Vagabonds Another Law was made against Vagabonds relating That the former Statute made in this Reign being too severe was by that means not executed so it was repealed and the Law made in King Henry the 8th's Reign put in force Provisions were laid down for relieving the Sick and Impotent and setting the Poor that were able to work That once a month there should be every where a Visitation of the Poor by those in Office who should send away such as did not belong to that Place and those were to be carried from Constable to Constable till they were brought to such Places as were bound to see to them There was a Bill brought in for the repealing of a Branch of the Act of Uniformity but it went no further than one reading On the 14th of November the Bishops made a heavy complaint to the Lords of the abounding of vice and disorder The Bishops move for a reviving of Ecclesiastical Censures and that their Power was so abridged that they could punish no sin nor oblige any to appear before them or to observe the Orders of the Church This was heard by all the Lords with great regret and they ordered a Bill to be drawn about it On the 18th of November a Bill was brought in but rejected at first reading because it seemed to give the Bishops too much Power So a second Bill was appointed to be drawn by a Committee of the House It was agreed to and sent down to the Commons who laid it aside after the second reading They thought it better to renew the design that was in the former Reign of two and thirty Persons being authorized to compile the Body of Ecclesiastical Laws and when that was prepared it seemed more proper by confirming it to establish Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than to give the Bishops any Power while the Rules of their Courts were so little determined or regulated So an act passed empow'ring the King to name fixteen Persons of the Spiritualty of whom four should be Bishops and sixteen of the Temporalty of whom four should be common Lawyers who within three years should compile a Body of Ecclesiastical Laws and those being nothing contrary to the Common and Statute Laws of the Land should be published by the Kings Warrant under the Great Seal and have the force of Laws in the Ecclesiastical Courts Thus they took care that this should not be turn'd over to an uncertain Period as it had been done in the former Reign but designed that it should be quickly finished The Bishops of that time were generally so backward in every step to a Reformation that a small number of them was made necessary to be of this Commission The effect that it had shall be afterwards opened There was a Bill brought in to the House of Commons That the Preaching and holding
same Writer also informs us that in many places of the Country Men were chosen by Force and Threats in other places those imployed by the Court Great disorder in Elections did by violence hinder the Commons from coming to chuse in many places false Returns were made and that some were violently turned out of the House of Commons upon which reasons he concludes that it was no Parliament since it was under a Force and so might be annulled as the Parliament held at Coventry in the 38th year of King Henry the 6th was upon Evidence of the like Force declared afterwards to be no Parliament The Journals of the House of Lords in this Parliament are lost so there is no light to be had of their proceedings but from the imperfect Journals of the House of Commons On the second day of the Session one moved in the House of Commons for a review of King Edwards Laws But that being a while argued was at this time laid aside and the Bill for Tonnage and Poundage was put in Then followed a Debate upon Dr. Nowell's being returned from Loo in Cornwal whether he being a Prebendary of Westminster could sit in that House and the Committee being appointed to search fot Precedents it was reported that he being represented in the Convocation House could not be a Member of that House so he was cast out The Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was sent up to the Lords who sent it down to the Commons to be reformed in two proviso's that were not according to former Precedents How far this was contrary to the Rights of the Commons who now say that the Lords cannot alter a Bill of Money I am not able to determine The only publick Bill that passed in this short Session was for a Declaration of Treasons and Felonies An Act for moderating some severe Laws by which it was ordained that nothing should be judged Treason but what was within the Statute of Treasons in the twenty fifth of Edward the third and nothing should be so judged Felony that was not so before the 1st year of King Henry the eight excepting from any benefit of this Act all such as had been in Prison before the last of September who were also excepted out of the Qeens Pardon at her Coronation Two private Bills also passed the one for the restoring of the Wife of the late Marquess of Exeter who had been Attainted in the 32 year of King Henry's Reign and the other for her Son Edward Courtney Earl of Devonshire And so the Parliament was Prorogued from the 21 to the 24 of October that their might be a Session of Parliament consisting only of Acts of Mercy though this Repeal of additional Treasons and Felonies was not more than what had passed in the beginning of King Edwards Reign without the clogg of so severe a proviso by which many were cut off from the Favour designed by it Some have thought that since Treasons had been reduced by the second Act of Edward the 6th to the standard of the 25th of Edward the third that therefore there was somewhat else designed by this Act then barely the repealing some late severe Acts which being done the 1st of Edward 6th needed not be now repealed if it imported no more And since this Act as it is worded mentions or rather excepts those Treasons that are declared and expressed in the 25th of Edward the 3d they have inferred that the power of Parliaments declaring of Treasons ex Post facto which was reserved by that Statute is hereby taken away and that nothing is now to be held Treason but what is ennumerated in that Statute Yet this is still liable to Debate since the one may be thought to be declared and expressed in general words as well as the other specialties are in more particular words and is also still in force So nothing seems comprehended within this Repeal but the Acts passed in King Edwards Reign declaring other Crimes to be Treason some are added in the same Act and others in that of the 3d and 4th of his Reign chap. 5. Nor is it likely that if the Parliament had intended to have delivered the Subjects from the apprehensions of all Acts of Attainder upon a Declaration of new Treasons they would not have expressed it more plainly since it must have been very grateful to the Nation which had groaned heavily under Arbitrary Attainders of late years When the Parliament met again the first Bill the Commons entred on was that of Tonnage and Poundage which they passed in two days The Mariage of Queen Katherine to King Henry Confirmed Then was the Bill about King Henry's Marriage with the Queens Mother sent down on the 26th by the Lords and the Commons passed it no the 28th so strangly was the stream turned that a Divorce that had been for seven years much desired by the Nation was now repealed upon fewer days consultation In the Preamble it was said That truth how much soever obscured and born down will in the end break out and that therefore they declared that King Henry the 8th being lawfully married to Queen Katherine by the consent of both their Parents and the advice of the wisest Men in the Realm and of the best and notablest Men for learning in Christendom did continue that state twenty years in which God blessed them with her Majesty and other issue and a course of great happiness but then a very few malicious Persons did endeavour to break that happy agreement between them and studied to possess the King with a scruple in his Conscience about it and to support that caused the Seals of some Vniversities to be got against it a few Persons being corrupted with money for that end They had also by sinistrous ways and secret threatnings procured the Seals of the Vniversities of this Kingdom and finally Thomas Cranmer did most ungodlily and against Law judge the Divorce upon his own unadvised understanding of the Scriptures upon the Testimonies of the Vniversities and some bare and most untrue conjectures and that was afterwards confirmed by two Acts of Parliament in which was contained the Illegitimacy of her Majesty But that Marriage not being prohibited by the Law of God and lawfully made could not be so broken since what God hath joyned together no Man could put asunder all which they considering together with the many miseries that had fallen on the Kingdom since that time which they did esteem Plagues sent from God for it therefore they declare that Sentence given by Cranmer to be unlawful and of no force from the begining and do also repeal the Acts of Parliament that had confirmed it By this Act Gardiner had performed his Promise to the Queen of getting her Illegitimation taken off Which was much Censured without any relation to the Popes Authority But in the drawing of it he shewed that he was past all shame when he could frame such an Act of a
business which himself had so violently and servilely promoted The falsehood of that pretence of corrupting Vniversities has been shewn in the former Volumn but it was all they had now to say The laying it all upon Cranmer was as high a pitch of malice and impudence as could be devised for as Gardiner had been setting it on long before Cranmer was known to King Henry so he had been joyned with him in the Commission and had given his assent to the Sentence which Cranmer gave Nor was the Divorce grounded meerly upon Cranmers understanding of the Scriptures but upon the fullest and most studied Arguments that had perhaps been in any Age brought together in one particular case and both Houses of Convocation had condemned the Mariage before his sentence But because in the right of his See he was Legate to the Pope therefore to make the Sentence stronger it went only in his name though he had but a small share in it compared to what Gardiner had By this Act there was also a second Illegittimation brought on the Lady Elizabeth The Queens carries severely to the Lady Elizabeth to whom hitherto the Queen had been very kind using her on all occasions with the tenderness of a Sister but from this time forwards she handled her more severely It was perhaps occasioned by this Act since before they stood both equally illegittimated but now the Act that legitimated the Queen making her most certainly a Bastard in Law the Queen might think it now too much to use her as she had done formerly Others suggest a more secret reason of this distast The new Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour so that it was thought she had some inclinations to marry him but he either not presuming so high or really having an aversion to her and an inclination to her Sister who of that moderate share of beauty that was between them had much the better of her and was nineteen years younger made his Addresses with more than ordinary concern to the Lady Elizabeth and this did bring them both in trouble as shall be afterwards shewn The next Bill that was sent from the Lords to the Commons The Laws made by King Edward repealed was for the repealing King Edward's Laws about Religion It was sent down on the 31st of October and argued six days in the House of Commons but in the end it was carried and sent back to the Lords The Preamble of it sets forth the great disorders that had fallen out in the Nation by the changes that had been made in Religion from that which their Fore-fathers had left them by the Authority of the Catholick Church thereupon all the Laws that had been made in King Edwards time about Religion were now repealed and it was Enacted that from the 20th of December next there should be no other Form of Divine Service but what had been used in the last year King of Henry the 8th leaving it free to all till that day to use either the Books appointed by King Edward or the old ones at their pleasure Another Act was passed which the Commons sent up to the Lords An Act against the affronting Priests against all those who by any overt Act should molest or disquiet any Preacher because of his Office or for any Sermon that he might have Preached or should any way disturb them when they were in any part of the Divine Offices that either had been in the last year of King Henry or should be afterwards set forth by the Queen or should break or abuse the holy Sacrament or break Altars Crucifixes or Crosses those that did any of these things should be presented to the Justices of Peace and be by them put in Prison where they should lye three Months or till they were penitent for their Offences and if any rescued them they should be liable to the same punishment But to this a Proviso was added by the Lords that this Act should no way derogate from the Authority of the Ecclesiastiâ—â—l Laws and Courts who might likewise proceed upon such Offences and a Certificate from the Ordinaries that such Offenders were punished by them being brought to the Justices of Peace they were to proceed no further or if the Justices made a Certificate that they had punished them according to Law the Ordinary might not punish them a second time But the Commons were now so heated that they sent up another Bill to the Lords against those who came not to Church nor to Sacraments after the old Service should be again set up the inflicting of the Punishments in these cases being left to the Ecclesiastical Courts This fell in the House of Lords not so much from any opposition that was made as that they were afraid of allarming the Nation too much by many severe Laws at once An Act against unlawful Assemblies Another Law was made for securing the publick Peace against unlawful and rebellious Assemblies that if any to the number of twelve or above should meet to alter any thing of Religion established by Law and being required by any having the Queens Authority to disperse themselves should continue after that an hour together it should be Felony or if that number met to break Hedges or Parks to destroy Deer or Fish c. and did not disperse upon Proclamation it should be Felony or if any by ringing of Bells Drums or firing of Beacons gathered the People together and did the things before mentioned it was Felony if the Wives or Servants of Persons so gathered caried Meat Money or Weapons to them it should be Felony and if any above the number of two and within twelve should meet for these ends they should suffer a years imprisonment empowering the Sheriffs or Justices to gather the Country for the resistance of Persons so offending with Penalties on all between eighteen and sixty that being required to come out against them should refuse to do it When this Act was known the People then saw clearly how they had been deceived by the former Act that seemed so favourable repealing all Acts of new Treasons and Felonies since there was so soon after it an Act passed that renewed one of the severest Laws of the last Reign in which so many things that might flow from sudden heats were made Felonies and a great many new and severe Proviso's were added to it The Queens discharge of the Subsidy was confirmed by another Act. The Marquess of Northampton's 2d Marriage is annulled There followed two private Acts which occasioned more Debate than the publick ones had done The one was the repeal of the Act that had confirmed the Marquess of Northamptons Marriage It was much argued in the House of Commons and on the 28th of November it was agreed to It contains that the Act of confirming the Divorce and the second Marriage was procured more upon untrue surmises and private respects than for any publick good and increase
Cardinal to marry since he was only in Deacon's Orders Before Commendone left England he saw the Duke of Northumberland executed and soon after he made all the haste that was possible to carry those acceptable Tidings to Rome and by his dexterity in this Negotiation he laid the foundation of those great Fortunes to which he was afterwards advanced There was no small Joy in the Consistory when the Pope and the Cardinals understood that a Kingdom from which they had drawn so much Wealth in former times was now to become again tributary to them So there was a publick rejoicing for three days in which the Pope said Mass himself and distributed his ordinary Largess of Indulgences of which he was the more bountiful because he hoped they should come in credit again and be purchased at the Rates at which they had been formerly sold Yet in the Consistory Commendone did not positively say he was sent by the Queen that being only communicated to the Pope all he told the Cardinals was That he understood from very good hands that the Queen was very well disposed to that See and that she desired that a Legate might be sent over with full Powers Many of the Cardinals thought this was too bare a Message and that it was below the Papal Dignity to send a Legate till the Pope was earnestly desired to do it by an express Message and an Embassy sent by the Queen But it was said that Commendone had said nothing but by the Queen 's express Orders who was yet in so unsetled a condition that till she held a Session of Parliament it might much endanger her to appear openly in such a Matter They were to remember how England had been lost by too much stiffness formerly and they were to imitate the Shepherd in the Parable who left his ninety nine Sheep to seek the one that was strayed So it was granted that Pool should go Legate with a full Power But Gardiner coming to know this sent to the Emperor to stop his Journey assuring him that things were going well on and that his coming over would spoil all At this time the Emperor began to think of marrying his Son Philip to the Queen who tho she was above nine years elder than he But stopp'd in his Journey by the Emperor yet being but thirty seven years old was not out of hopes of having Children The Emperor saw that if England were united to the Spanish Crown it would raise that Monarchy to a great height they should have all the Trade of the World in their hands and so enclose France that it seemed as probable a step to the Universal Monarchy as that he had lately lost in Germany When this Match was first proposed I do not know but I have read some parts of a Letter concerning it for it is not all legible which was written by the Queen of Hungary and signed by the Emperor in the beginning of November this tho it was not the first Proposition yet seems to have followed soon after it The Queen entertained the Motion easily not trusting to the Affections of her People nor thinking it possible to have the Papal Authority set up nor the Church-Lands restored without a forreign Force to assist her It is said and I have shewn some ground to believe that she had some Inclinations to Cardinal Pool and that the Emperor fearing that might be an hindrance to his Design therefore the Cardinal 's coming over was stopp'd till the Queen was married to his Son Philip. But of this I find no certain footsteps On the contrary Gardiner whose eye was chiefly upon the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury would rather have promoted Pool's pretensions to the Queen since her marrying a Subject and not a Stranger would have made the Government much easier and more acceptable to the People and it would have been the best thing he could do for himself if he could have persuaded her to marry him who alone was like to stand between him and that Dignity The true Account of it is The Emperor pressed her first to settle the State and consummate her Marriage and that would more easily make way for what was to follow For Gardiner had assured him the bringing in of the Papal Power and making up the Marriage both at once would be things of such ill digestion that it would not be easy to carry them together and therefore it was necessary to let a considerable Interval go between This being resolved on it was apparent the Marriage ought to go first as that which would give them more strength to conclude the other And this was the true reason of stopping Cardinal Pool at * A Town on the Danube Dilling which the Emperor at first did by his own Authority but afterwards got the Queen to send one to him to the same purpose She sent Goldwell afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph to him The Queen sent one to to him with the two Acts that were passed for the justifying of her Mother's Marriage and for bringing all things back to the State in which they were at her Father's Death Thereby she let him see that she was going forward in the Business for which he was sent but withal she told him That the Commons in passing those Acts had expressed great aversion to the taking of the Supremacy from the Crown or the restoring of the Pope's Power and that they were much allarm'd to hear he was coming over Legate and it prejudiced her Affairs that the Message she had sent by Commendone had been published in the Consistory Therefore she desired him to keep out of England till he were further advertised But to let him see how much she depended on his Counsels she desired he would send her a List of such Persons as should be made Bishops for many were now to be turned out To this besides the Answer which he might have writ to her self that I have not seen he writ a copious Answer in a tedious Paper of Instructions which he gave to Goldwell the Conclusion of which summing up his whole Mind fully enough Collections Numb 9. I thought sufficient to put into the Collection for the Instructions are extream long and very full of words to little purpose They seem to be of his own hand-writing but of that I am not well assured having seen nothing else of his hand except his Subscription The substance of it was this He rejoyced much at the two Acts that were passed The Advice he sent to the Queen but yet he censures them both because he observed some Defects in them In the Act for confirming her Mother's Marriage he found fault that there was no mention made of the Pope's Bulls by the authority of which only it could be a lawful Marriage In the other he did not like it that the Worship of God and the Sacraments were to be as they were in the end of her Father's Reign for then the People
Recorder of London told the Earl of Leicester the secret of this in Queen Elizabeth's Time who writ down his Discourse and from thence I have copied it There was one that had been Cromwell's Servant and much employed by him in the suppression of Monasteries he was a Man of great Notions but very busy and factious so having been a great stickler for the Lady Jane he was put in the Fleet upon the Queen's first coming to the Crown yet within a month he was discharged but upon the last Rising was again put up and indicted of High Treason He had great Friends and made application to one of the Emperor's Ambassadors that was then the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Milan and by his means he obtained his Liberty Being brought to him he shewed him a new Plat-form of Government which he had contrived for the Queen She was to declare her self a Conqueror or that she having succeeded to the Crown by Common Law was not at all to be limited by the Statute Laws since those were only restrictions upon the Kings but not on the Queens of England and that therefore all those Limitations of the Prerogative were only binding in the Persons of Kings but she was free from them Upon this he shewed how she might establish Religion set up the Monasteries raise her Friends and ruin her Enemies and Rule according to her Pleasure The Ambassador carried this to the Queen and seemed much pleased with it but desired her to read it carefully and keep it as a great Secret As she read it she disliked it and judged it contrary to the Oath she had made at her Coronation and thereupon sent for Gardiner and charged him as he would answer before the Judgment-Seat of God at the general Day of the Holy Doom that he would consider the Book carefully and bring her his Opinion of it next day which fell to be Maundy Thursday So as the Queen came from her Maundy he waited on her into her Closet and said these words My good and most gracious Lady I intend not to pray your Highness with any humble Petitions to name the Devisers of this new invented Plat-form but here I say That it is pity that so noble and vertuous a Lady should be endangered with the pernicious Devices of such lewd and subtil Sycophants for the Book is naught and most horrible to be thought on Upon this the Queen thanked him and threw the Book into the Fire and charged the Ambassador that neither he nor any of his Company should receive more such Projects from any of her People This made Gardiner apprehended that if the Spaniards began so soon to put such Notions into the Queen's Head they might afterwards when she was in their Hands make somewhat of them and therefore to prevent such Designs for the future he drew the Act in which though he seemed to do it as an Advantage to the Queen for the putting of her Title beyond dispute yet he really intended nothing by it but that she should be restrained by all those Laws that the former Kings of England had consented to And because King Henry the Seventh though his best right to the Crown flowed from his Marriage to the Heir of the House of York had yet taken the Government wholly into his own hands he fearing lest the Spaniards should pretend to such a Power by the Authority which Marriage gives the Husband over the Wife got the Articles of the Marriage to be ratified in Parliament by which they not only confirmed those agreed on but made a more full explanation of that part of them which declared the entire Government of the Kingdom to belong only to the Queen To this the Spaniards gave too great an occasion Great Jealousies of the Spanish Power by publishing King Philip's Pedigree whom they derived from John of Gaunt They said this was only done to conciliate the favour of the Nation by representing him not a stranger but a Native But this gave great offence concerning which I have seen a little Book that vvas then printed It was there said That King Henry the Seventh came in pretending only to marry the Heir of the House of York But he was no sooner on the Throne than he declared his own Title and kept it his whole Life So it vvas said the Spaniard vvould call himself Heir of the House of Lancaster and upon that Pretension would easily wrest the Power out of the Queen's hands who seemed to mind nothing but her Devotions This made Gardiner look the better to the securing of the Liberties of the Crown and Nation so that it must be acknowledged that the preserving of England out of the hands of the Spaniards at that time seems to be almost vvholly owing to him In this Parliament the Marquess of Northampton vvas restored in Blood And the Act for restoring the Bishoprick of Duresm The Bishoprick of Duresm restored not having gone through the last Parliament vvhen it vvas dissolved vvas now brought in again The Town of Newcastle opposed it much vvhen it came down to the Commons But the Bishop of Duresm came to them on the 18th of April and gave them a long account of all his Troubles from the Duke of Northumberland and desired that they would dispatch his Bill There vvere many Proviso's put into it for some that vvere concerned in Gateside but it vvas carried in the House That instead of these Proviso's they should send a Desire to him recommending those Persons to his Favour So upon a Division there vvere 120 against it and 201 for it After this came the Bill confirming the Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and fifty eight more vvho vvere attainted for the late Rebellion The Lords put in a Proviso excepting Entailed Lands out of their Forfeitures but the Commons rejected the Proviso and passed the Bill Then did the Commons send up a Bill for reviving the Statutes made against Lollardy vvhich being read twice by the Lords vvas laid aside The Commons intended next to have revived the Statute of the Six Articles but it did not agree vvith the Design at Court to take any notice of King Henry's Acts so this vvas let fall Then they brought in another Bill to extirpate Erroneous Opinions and Books but that vvas at the third reading laid aside After that they passed a particular Bill against Lollardy in some Points as the eating of flesh in Lent but that also being sent up to the Lords was at the third reading laid aside by the major part of the House so forward were the Commons to please the Queen or such Operation had the Spanish Gold on them that they contrived four Bills in one Session for the prosecution of those they called Hereticks But to give some content on the other hand they passed a Bill that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other should have any Power to Convene or trouble any for possessing Abbey Lands This was sent up to
Transgressors of all Canons and Constitutions The Cardinal first declared what his Designs and Powers were to the King and Queen and then on the 27th a Message was sent to the Parliament to come and hear him deliver his Legation which they doing he made them a long Speech And makes a Speech to the Parliament inviting them to a Reconciliation with the Apostolick See from whence he was sent by the common Pastor of Christendom to reduce them who had long strayed from the Inclosure of tâ—â— Church This made some emotion in the Queen which she fondly thought was a Child quickned in her Belly this redoubled the Joy some not sparing to say The Queen is believed to be with Child that as John Baptist leaped in his Mothers Belly at the Salutation of the Virgin so here a happy Omen followed on this Salutation from Christ's Vicar In this her Women seeing that she firmly believed her self with Child flattered her so far that they fully persuaded her of it Notice was given of it to the Council who that night writ a Letter to Bonner about it ordering a Te Deum to be sung at St. Pauls and the other Churches of London and that Collects should be constantly used for bringing this to a happy perfection All that night and next day there was great joy about the Court and City On the 29th the Speaker reported to the Commons the substance of the Cardinal's Speech and a Message coming from the Lords for a Conference of some of their House with the Lord Chancellor four Earls four Bishops and four Lords to prepare a Supplication for their being reconciled to the See of Rome it was consented to and the Petition being agreed on at the Committee was reported and approved of by both Houses It contained an Address to the King and Queen EFFIGIES REGINALDI POLI CARDINALIS R White sculp Natus Anno 1500. Maij. cc Cardinalis S. Marioe in Cosmedin 1536. Maij 22 Consecr Archiepisc Cantuariensis 1555 6. Mar 22. Obijt 1558. Nov 17. Printed for Rich Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church yard That whereas they had been guilty of a most horrible Defection and Schism from the Apostolick See The Parliaments Petition to be reconciled to the See of Rome they did now sincerely repent of it and in sign of their Repentance were ready to repeal all the Laws made in prejudice of that See therefore since the King and Queen had been no way defiled by their Schism they pray them to be Intercessors with the Legat to grant them Absolution and to receive them again into the Bosom of the Church So this being presented by both Houses on their Knees to the King and Queen they made their Intercession with the Cardinal who thereupon delivered himself in a long Speech He thanked the Parliament for repealing the Act against him The Cardinal makes a long Speech and making him a Member of the Nation from which he was by that Act cut off In recompence of which he was now to reconcile them to the Body of the Church He told them The Apostolick See cherished Britain most tenderly as the first Nation that had publickly received the Christian Faith The Saxons vvere also afterwards converted by the means of that See and some of their King 's had been so devoted to it that Offa and others had gone to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles That Adrian the fourth an English Pope had given Ireland to the Crown of England and that many mutual Marks of reciprocal kindness had passed between that common Father of Christendom and our Kings their most beloved Sons but none more eminent than the bestowing on the late King the Title of Defender of the Faith He told them That in the Unity with that See consisted the happiness and strength of all Churches that since the Greeks had separated from them they had been abandoned by God and vvere now under the Yoke of Mahometans That the Distractions of Germany did further demonstrate this but most of all the Confusions themselves had felt ever since they had broken that Bond of Perfection That it vvas the Ambition and Craft of some who for their privat Ends began it to vvhich the rest did too submissively comply and that the Apostolick See might have proceeded against them for it by the assistance of other Princes but had stayed looking for that Day and for the Hand of Heaven He run out much on the commendation of the Queen and said God had signally preserved her to procure this great Blessing to the Church At last he enjoined them for Penance to repeal the Laws they had made and so in the Pope's Name And grants them Absolution he granted them a full Absolution vvhich they received on their Knees and he also absolved the vvhole Realm from all Censures The rest of the day vvas spent vvith great solemnity and triumph all that had been done vvas published next Sunday at Pauls There vvas a Committee appointed by both Houses to prepare the Statute of Repeal which vvas not finished before the 25th of December and then the Bishop of London only protesting against it because of a Proviso put in for the Lands which the Lord Wentworth had out of his Bishoprick it vvas agreed to and sent to the Commons They made more hast vvith it for they sent it back the 4th of January with a desire that twenty Lines in it vvhich concerned the See of London and the Lord Wentworth might be put out and two new Proviso's added One of their Proviso's vvas not liked by the Lords who drew a new one to vvhich the Viscount Montacute and the Bishops of London and Coventry dissented The twenty Lines of the Lord Wentworth's Proviso vvere not put out but the Lord Chancellor took a Knife and cut them out of the Parchment and said Now I do truly the Office of a Chancellor the word being ignorantly derived by some from Cancelling It is not mentioned in the Journal that this vvas done by the Order of the House but that must be supposed otherwise it cannot be thought the Parliament vvould have consented to so unlimited a Power in the Lord Chancellor as to raze or cut out Proviso's at his pleasure The Act of Repealing all Laws against that See By the Act is set forth their former Schism from the See of Rome and their Reconciliation to it now upon vvhich all Acts passed since the 20th of Henry the Eighth against that See were specially enumerated and repealed There it is said that for the removing of all Grudges that might arise they desired that the following Articles might through the Cardinal's Intercession be established by the Pope's Authority 1. That all Bishopricks Cathedrals or Colleges now established might be confirmed for ever 2. That Marriages made within such degrees as are not contrary to the Law of God but only to the Laws of the Church might be confirmed and the Issue
the loss of things they buy but the most part of true Gentlemen I mean not these Farming Gentlemen nor Clarking Knights have little or nothing increased their Rents yet their House-keeping is dearer their Meat is dearer their Liveries dearer their Wages greater which thing at length if speedy Remedy be not had will bring that State into utter Ruin Quod absit The Artificers work falsly the Clothiers use deceit in Cloth the Masons in Building the Clockmakers in their Clocks the Joiner in his working of Timber and so forth all other almost to the intent they would have Men oftner come to them for amending their Things and so have more Gain although at the beginning they take out of measure The Merchants adventure not to bring in strange Commodities but loiter at home send forth small Hoyes with two or three Mariners occupy exchange of Mony buy and sell Victual steal out Bullion Corn Victual Wood and such-like things out of the Realm and sell their Ware unreasonably The Husbandmen and Farmers take their Ground at a small Rent and dwell not on it but let it to poor Men for triple the Rent they take it for and sell their Flesh Corn Milk Butter c. at unreasonable prices The Gentleman constrained by Necessity and Poverty becometh a Farmer a Grasier or a Sheep-master The Grasier the Farmer the Merchants become Landed-men and call themselves Gentlemen though they be Churls yea the Farmer will have ten Farms some twenty and will be a Pedlar-Merchant The Artificer will leave the Town and for his more Pastimes will live in the Country yea and more than that will be a Justice of Peace and will think scorn to have it denied him so Lordly be they now-a-days for now they are not content with 2000 Sheep but they must have 20000 or else they think themselves not well they must have twenty mile square their own Land or full of their Farms and four or five Crafts to live by is too little such Hell-hounds be they For Idle Persons there were never I think more than be now the Wars Men think is the cause thereof such Persons can do nothing but Rob and Steal but slack execution of the Laws hath been the chiefest sore of all the Laws have been manifestly broken the Offenders banished and either by Bribery or foolish Pity escaped punishment The Dissention and Disagreement both for private Matters and also in Matters of Religion hath been no little cause but the principal hath been the disobedient and contentious talking and doing of the foolish and fond People which for lack of teaching have wandered and broken wilfully and disobediently the Laws of this Realm The Lawyers also and Judges have much offended in Corruption and Bribery Furthermore they do now-a-days much use to forestall not only private Markets of Corn and Victual whereby they enhaunce the price thereof but also send to the Sea too aboard Ships and take the Wine Sugar Dates or any other Ware and bring it to London where they sell at double the price What shall I say of those that buy and sell Offices of Trust that impropriate Benefices that destroy Timber that not considering the sustaining of Men of their Corn turn Till Ground to Pasture that use excess in Apparel in Diet and in building of Inclosures of Wastes and Commons of those that cast false and seditious Bills but that the thing is so tedious long and lamentable to entreat of the Particulars that I am weary to go any further in the Particulars wherefore I will cease having told the worst because the best will save it self Now I will begin to entreat of a Remedy The Ill in this Common-Wealth as I have before said standeth in deceitful working of Artificers using of Exchange and Usury making vent with Hoyes only into Flanders conveying of Bullion Lead Bell-mettle Copper Wood Iron Fish Corn and Cattel beyond Sea inhauncing of Rents using no Arts to live by keeping of many Sheep and many Farms idleness of People disobedience of the lower sort buying and selling of Offices Impropriations Benefices turning Till Ground to Pasture exceeding in Apparel Diet and Building enclosing of Commons casting of ill and seditious Bills These Sores must be cured with these Medicines or Plaisters 1. Good Education 2. Devising of good Laws 3. Executing the Laws justly without respect of Persons 4. Example of Rulers 5. Punishing of Vagabonds and idle Persons 6. Encouraging the Good 7. Ordering well the Customers 8. Engendring Friendship in all parts of the Common-Wealth These be the chief Points that tend to order well the whole Common-Wealth And for the first as it is in order first so it seemeth to be in dignity and degree for Horace saith very wisely Quo est muta recens servabit odorem Testa diu With whatsoever thing the New Vessel is imbued it will long keep the savour saith Horace meaning That for the most part Men be as they be brought up and Men keep longest the favour of their first bringing up Wherefore seeing that it seemeth so necessary a thing We will shew our device herein Youth must be brought up some in Husbandry some in Working Graving Gilding Joining Printing making of Clothes even from their tenderest Age to the intent they may not when they come to Man's Estate loiter as they do now adays and neglect but think their Travail sweet and honest And for this purpose would I wish that Artificers and others were either commanded to bring up their Sons in like Trade or else had some Places appointed them in every good Town where they should be Apprentices and bound to certain kind of Conditions Also that those Vagabonds that take Children and teach them to beg should according to their demerits be worthily punished This shall well ease and remedy the deceitful working of Things disobedience of the lower Sort casting of Seditious Bills and will clearly take away the Idleness of People 2. Devising of good Laws I have shewed my Opinion heretofore what Statutes I think most necessary to be enacted this Sessions nevertheless I would wish that beside them hereafter when time shall serve the superfluous and tedious Statutes were brought into one Sum together and made more plain and short to the intent that Men might the better understand them which thing shall much help to advance the profit of the Common-Wealth 3. Nevertheless when all these Laws be made established and enacted they serve to no purpose except they be fully and duly executed By whom By those that have authority to execute that is to say the Noblemen and the Justices of Peace Wherefore I would wish that after this Parliament were ended those Noblemen except a few that should be with Me went to their Countries and there should see the Statutes fully and duly executed and that those Men should be put from being Justices of Peace that be touched or blotted with those Vices that be against these new Laws to be established for
that the said Clergy according to the Tenour of the King 's Writ and the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Noble Realm might have their Room and Place and be associated with the Commons in the Nether House of this present Parliament as Members of the Common-Wealth and the King 's most humble Subjects And if this may not be permitted and granted unto them that then no Statutes nor Laws concerning the Christian Religion or which shall concern especially the Persons Possessions Rooms Livings Jurisdictions Goods or Chattels of the said Clergy may pass nor be enacted the said Clergy not being made privy thereunto and their Answers and Reasons not heard The said Clergy do most humbly beseech an Answer and Declaration to be made unto them what the said most Reverend Father in God and all other the Bishops have done in this their humble Suit and Request to the end that the said Clergy if need be may chuse of themselves such able and discreet Persons which shall effectually follow the same Suit in the Name of them all And whereas in a Statute ordained and established by Authority of Parliament at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of the most excellent Prince King Henry the 8th The Clergy of this Realm submitting themselves to the King's Highness did knowledg and confess according to the Truth That the Convocations of the same Clergy have been and ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and did promise farther in Verbo Sacerdotii that they never from thenceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim or put in use or enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincials or other or by whatsoever other Name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and License may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same And his Majesty to give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf upon pain of every one of the Clergy doing the contrary and being thereof Convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the King 's Will. And that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm which Statute is eft-soons renewed and established in the 27th Year of the Reign of the most noble King as by the Tenour of both Statutes more at large will appear The said Clergy being presently assembled in Convocation by Authority of the King 's Writ do desire that the King's Majesty's License in writing may be for them obtained and granted according to the effect of the said Statutes authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised Also the said Clergy desireth that such Matters as concerneth Religion which be disputable may be quietly and in good order reasoned and disputed among them in this House whereby the Verities of such Matters shall the better appear and the Doubts being opened and resolutely discussed Men may be fully perswaded with the quietness of their Consciences and the time well spent Number 18. A Paper offered to Q. Elizabeth and afterwards to K. James concerning the Inferior Clergies being brought to the House of Commons Reasons to induce her Majesty that Deans Arch-Deacons and some other of her grave and wise Clergie may be admitted into the Lower House of Parliament 1. IN former Times when Causes Ecclesiastical were either not at all Ex M.S. Dr. Borlace or else very rarely treated of in that Assembly the Clergy were thought Men most meet to consult and determine of the Civil Affairs of this Realm 2. The Supream Authority in Church Causes is not newly granted but reunited and restored to the Crown and an Order is by Law already established how all Abuses in the Church are to be reformed so as no cause concerning Religion may be handled in that House without her Majesty's special leave but with the manifest impeaching of her Prerogative Royal and contempt of the said Order 3. If it shall please her Highness to give way to this Course that Church-Matters be there debated and in part concluded How much more necessary is it now than it was in former Times that some of the Clergy should be there present at the same * In the same Paper written over to be presented to K. James this Article is thus varied It is thought the Clergie falling into a Premunire and so not in the King's Protection it did afterwards please the King to pardon them but not to restore them So began this Separation as far forth as can be collected then the Wisdom of a great Politician meeting with the Ambition of as great a Prelat wrought the continuance of the said Separation under this pretence That it should be most for the Honour of him and his Clergie to be still by themselves in two Assemblies of Convocation answerable in proportion to the two Houses of Parliament There are many other inconsiderable Amendments made by Bishop Ravis 's own hand It doth not appear why they were excluded but as it is thought either the King offended with some of them did so grievously punish the whole Body or else the Ambition of one of them meeting with the subtilty of an undermining Politick did occasion this causeless Separation 5. They are yet to this day called by several Writs directed into their several Diocesses under the Great Seal to assist the Prince in that High Court of Parliament 6. Though the Clergy and the Universities be not the worst Members of this Common-Wealth yet in that respect they are of all other in worst condition for in that Assembly every Shire hath their Knights and every incorporate Town their Burgesses only the Clergy and the Universities are excluded 7. The Wisdom and Justice of this Realm doth intend That no Subject should be bound to that Law whereunto he himself after a sort hath not yielded his Consent but the Clergy and the Universities may now be concluded by Law without their Consent without their just Defence without their Privity 8. The many Motions made so prejudicial to the State and being of the Clergy and Universities followed now with so great eagerness in that House would then be utterly silenced or soon repressed with the sober and sufficient Answers of the Clergy present 9. It would much repair the Reputation and Credit of the Clergy which now is exposed to great contumely and contempt as generally abroad in this Land so particularly in that House And whoso is religious and wise may observe That the Contempt of the Clergy is the high way to Atheism and all Prophaneness Men are Flesh and not Spirit led by ordinary outward Means and not usually overwrought by extraordinary Inspirations and therefore do easily
plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a â—acrament and hath given occasion to many Superâ—â—itions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an Heavenly and Spiritual Manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Since the very Being of humane Nature doth require that the Body of one and the same Man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the Holy Scriptures testify Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the World it becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporeal presence as they phrase it of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up or worshipped XXIX Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper The wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith altho they do carnally and visibly press with their Teeth as St. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of both Kinds The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament by Christ's Ordinance and Commandment ought not to be ministred to all Christian People alike XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross The Offering of Christ once made is a perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the Sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said That the Priests did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have remission of Pain or Guilt were * blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single Life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is lawful for them as for all other Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judg thâ— same to serve better to Godliness XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That Person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole Multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judg that hath Authority thereunto XXXIII Of the Tradition of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly alike for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and Mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and reproved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to ordain change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for the Times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the 6th and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The Names of the Homilies Of the Right Use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. The Homilies lately delivered and commended to the Church of England by the King's Injunctions do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all Men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the Ministration of the Sacraments The Book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are Consecrated and Ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second Year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or Ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to truth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forreign Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to
King Edward the 6th by the same Act limited and appointed to remain to the Lady Mary his eldest Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten And for default of such Issue the Remainder thereof to the Lady Elizabeth by the Name of the Lady Elizabeth his second Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten with such Conditions as should be limited and appointed by the said late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor our Great Uncle by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed with his Hand And forasmuch as the said Limitation of the Imperial Crown of this Realm being limited as is afore-said to the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth being illegitimate and not lawfully begotten for that the Marriage had between â—he said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Katherine Mother to the said Lady Mary and also the Marriage had between the said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Ann Mother to the said Lady Elizabeth were clearly and lawfully undone by Sentences of Divorce according to the Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Laws and which said several Divorcements have been severally ratified and confirmed by Authority of Parliament and especially in the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progenitor and Great Uncle remaining in force strength and effect whereby as well the said Lady Mary as also the said Lady Elizabeth to all intents and purposes are and been clearly disabled to ask claim or challenge the said Imperial Crown or any other of the Honours Castles Manours Lordships Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments as Heir or Heirs to our said late Cousin King Edward the 6th or as Heir or Heirs to any other Person or Persons whatsoever as well for the Cause before rehearsed as also for that the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth were unto our said late Cousin but of the half Blood and therefore by the Ancient Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm be not inheritable unto our said late Cousin although they had been born in lawful Matrimony as indeed they were not as by the said Sentences of Divorce and the said Statute of the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progeâ—â—â—or and Great Uncle plainly appeareth And forasmuch also as it is to be thought or at the least much to be doubted that if the said Lady Mary or Lady Elizabeth should hereafter have or enjoy the said Imperial Crown of this Realm and should then happen to marry with any Stranger born out of this Realm that then the said Stranger having the Government and Imperial Crown in his Hands would adhere and practise not only to bring this Noble Free Realm into the Tyranny and Servitude of the Bishops of Rome but also to have the Laws and Customs of his or their own Native Country or Countries to be practised and put in ure within this Realm rather than the Laws Statutes and Customs here of long time used whereupon the Title of Inheritance of all and singular the Subjects of this Realm do depend to the peril of Conscience and the uttersubversion of the Common-Weal of this Realm Whereupon our said late dear Cousin weighing and considering within himself which ways and means were most convenient to be had for the stay of the said Succession in the said Imperial Crown if it should please God to call our said late Cousin out of this transitory Life having no Issue of his Body And calling to his remembrance that We and the Lady Katharine and the Lady Mary our Sisters being the Daughters of the Lady Frances our natural Mother and then and yet Wife to our natural and most loving Father Henry Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Margaret Daughter of the Lady Elianor then deceased Sister to the said Lady Frances and the late Wife of our Cousin Henry Earl of Cumberland were very nigh of his Graces Blood of the part of his Fathers side our said Progenitor and great Uncle and being naturally born here within the Realm And for the very good Opinion our said late Cousin had of our said Sisters and Cousin Margarets good Education did therefore upon good deliberation and advice herein had and taken by his said Letters Patents declare order assign limit and appoint that if it should fortune himself our said late Cousin King Edward the Sixth to decease having no Issue of his Body lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Confines of the same and his Title to the Crown of the Realm of France and all and singular Honours Castles Prerogatives Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities Jurisdictions Dominions Possessions and Hereditaments to our said late Cousin K. Edward the Sixth or to the said Imperial Crown belonging or in any wise appertaining should for lack of such Issue of his Body remain come and be to the eldest Son of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in his Life-time and to the Heirs Males of the Body of such eldest Son lawfully begotten and so from Son to Son as he should be of vicinity of Birth of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in our said late Cousins Life-time and to the Heirs Male of the Body of every such Son lawfully begotten And for default of such Son born into the World in his life-time of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten and for lack of Heirs Males of every such Son lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown and all and singular other the Premises should remain come and be to us by the Name of the Lady Jane eldest Daughter of the said Lady Frances and to the Heirs Males of our Body lawfully begotten and for lack of such Issue then to the Lady Katherine aforesaid our said second Sister and the Heirs Male of her Body lawfully begotten with divers other Remainders as by the same Letters Patents more plainly and at large it may and doth appear Sithence the making of our Letters Patents that is to say on Thursday which was the 6th day of this instant Month of July it hath pleased God to call unto his infinite Mercy our said most dear and entirely beloved Cousin Edward the Sixth whose Soul God pardon and forasmuch as he is now deceased having no Heirs of his Body begotten and that also there remaineth at this present time no Heirs lawfully begotten of the Body of our said Progenitor and great Uncle King Henry the Eighth And forasmuch also as the said Lady Frances our said Mother had no Issue Male begotten of her Body and born into the World in the life-time of our said Cousin King Edward the Sixth so as the said Imperial Crown and other the Premises to the same belonging or in any wise appertaining
in the possession of the Temporality that it may please your good Lordships by your discreet Wisdoms to foresee and provide that by this our Grant nothing pass which may be prejudicial or hurtful to any Bishop or other Ecclesiastical Person or their Successors for or concerning any Action Right Title or Interest which by the Laws of this Realm are already grown or may hereafter grow or rise to them or any of them and their Successors for any Lands Tenements Pensions Portions Tithes Rents Reversions Service or other Hereditaments which sometime appertained to the said Bishops or other Ecclesiastical Persons in the Right of their Churches or otherwise but that the same Right Title and Interest be safe and reserved to them and every of them and their Successors according to the said Laws And further whereas in the Statute passed in the first Year of Edward the Sixth for the suppressing of all Colleges c. Proviso was made by the said Statute in respect of the same Surrender that Schools and Hospitals should have been erected and founded in divers parts of this Realm for the good education of Youth in Vertue and Learning and the better sustentation of the Poor and that other Works beneficial for the Common-Weal should have been executed which hitherto be not performed according to the meaning of the said Statute it may please your good Lordships to move the King 's and the Queen 's most Royal Majesty and the Lord Cardinal to have some special consideration for the due performance of the Premises and that as well the same may the rather come to pass as the Church of England which heretofore hath been hononourably endowed with Lands and Possessions may have some recovery of so notable Damages and Losses which she hath sustained It may please their Highness with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same to repeal make frustrate and void the Statute of Mortmayn made in the seventh Year of Edward the First otherwise intituled de Religiosis and the Statute concerning the same made the 15th Year of King Richard the Second And all and every other Statute and Statutes at any time heretofore made concerning the same And forasmuch as Tythes and Oblations have been at all times assigned and appointed for the sustentation of Ecclesiastical Ministers and in consideration of the same their Ministry and Office which as yet cannot be executed by any Lay Person so it is not meet that any of them should perceive possess or enjoy the same That all Impropriations now being in the hands of any Lay Person or Persons and Impropriations made to any secular use other than for the maintenance of Ecclesiastical Ministers Universities and Schools may be by like Authority of Parliament dissolved and the Churches reduced to such State as they were in before the same Impropriations were made And in this behalf we shall most humbly pray your good Lordships to have in special Consideration how lately the Lands and Possessions of Prebends in certain Cathedral Churches within this Realm have been taken away from the same Prebends to the use of certain private Persons and in the lieu thereof Benefices of notable value impropriated to the Cathedral Churches in which the said Prebends were founded to the no little decay of the said Cathedral Churches and Benefices and the Hospitality kept in the same Farther Right Reverend Fathers we perceiving the godly forwardness in your good Lordships in the restitution of this noble Church of England to the pristine State and Unity of Christ's Church which now of late Years have been grievously infected with Heresies perverse and schismatical Doctrine sown abroad in this Realm by evil Preachers to the great loss and danger of many Souls accounting our selves to be called hither by your Lordships out of all parts of the Province of Canterbury to treat with your Lordships concerning as well the same as of other things touching the State and Quietness of the same Church in Doctrine and in Manners have for the furtherance of your godly doing therein devised these Articles following to be further considered and enlarged as to your Lordships Wisdoms shall be thought expedient Wherein as you do earnestly think many things meet and necessary to be reform'd so we doubt not but your Lordships having respect to God's Glory and the good Reformation of things amiss will no less travel to bring the same to pass And we for our part shall be at all times ready to do every thing as by your Lordships Wisdoms shall be thought expedient 1. We design to be resolved Whether that all such as have preach'd in any part within this Realm or other the King and Queen's Dominions any Heretical Erroneous or Seditious Doctrine shall be called before the Ordinaries of such Places where they now dwell or be Benefic'd and upon examination to be driven to recant openly such their Doctrine in all Places where they have preach d the same And otherwise Whether any Order shall be made and Process to be made herein against them according to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church in such Case used 2. That the pestilent Book of Thomas Cranmer late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made against the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the Schismatical Book called The Communion Book and the Book of Ordering of Ecclesiastical Ministers all suspect Translations of the Old and New Testament the Authors whereof are recited in a Statute made the Year of King Henry the Eighth and all other Books as well in Latin as in English concerning any Heretical Erroneous or Slanderous Doctrine may be destroyed and burnt throughout this Realm And that publick Commandment be given in all Places to every Man having any such Books to bring in the same to the Ordinary by a certain day or otherwise to be taken and reputed as a favourer of such Doctrine And that it may be lawful to every Bishop and other Ordinary to make enquiry and due search from time to time for the said Books and to take them from the Owners and Possessors of them for the purpose abovesaid 3. And for the better repress of all such pestilent Books That Order may be taken with all speed that no such Books may be printed uttered or sold within this Realm or brought from beyond the Seas or other parts into the same upon grievous pains to all such as shall presume to attempt the contrary 4. And that the Bishops and other Ordinaries may with better speed root up all such pernicious Doctrine and the Authors thereof We desire that the Statutes made Anno quinto of Richard the Second Anno secundo of Henry the Fourth and Anno secundo of Henry the Fifth against Hereticks Lollards and false Preachers may be by your Industrious Suit reviv'd and put in force as shall be thought convenient And generally that all Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Ordinaries may be restored to their Pristine
for it but the Author's word and Poets must make Circumstances as well as more signal Contrivances to set off their Fables But there was no occasion for Bucer's saying this since he never declared against the Corporal Presence but was for taking up that Controversy in some general Expressions So it was not suitable to his Opinion in that Matter for him to talk so loosely of the Scriptures And is it credible that a Story of this nature should not have been published in Queen Mary's Time and been made use of when he was condemned for an Heretick and his Body raised and burnt But our Author perhaps did not think of that 15. He says Pag. 191. Peter Martyr was a while in suspence concerning the Eucharist and stayed till he should see what the Parliament should appoint in that Matter P. Martyr argued and read in the Chair against the Corporal Presence four Years before the Parliament medled with it For the second Common-Prayer Book which contained the first publick Declaration that the Parliament made in this Matter was enacted in the fifth Year of King Edward and Peter Martyr from his first coming to England had appeared against it 16. He said The first Parliament under King Edward Pag. 193. appointed a new Form to be used in ordaining Priests and Bishops who till that time had been Ordained according to the Old Rites save only that they did not swear Obedience to the Pope This is a further Evidence of our Author's care in searching the printed Statutes since what was done in the Fifth Year of this Reign he represents as done in the First His Design in this was clear he had a mind to possess all his own Party with an Opinion that the Orders given in this Church were of no force and therefore he thought it a decent piece of his Poem to set down this Change as done so early since if he had mentioned it in its proper place he knew not how to deny the validity of the Orders that were given the first four Years of this Reign which continued to be conferred according to the old Forms 17. He says The Parliament did also at the same time Ibid. confirm a new Book of Common-Prayer and of the Administration of the Sacraments This is of a piece with the former for the Act confirming the Common-Prayer Book which is also among the Printed Statutes passed not in this Session of Parliament but in a second Session a Year after this These are Indications sufficient to shew what an Historian Sanders was that did not so much as read the Publick Acts of the Time concerning which he writ 18. He says They ordered all Images to be removed Ibid. and sent some lewd Men over England for that effect who either brake or burnt the Images of our Saviour the Blessed Virgin and the Saints therein declaring against whom they made War and they ordered the King's Arms three Leopards and three Lillies with the Supporters a Dog and a Serpent to be set in the place where the Cross of Christ stood thereby owning that they were no longer to worship Jesus Christ whose Images they broke but the King whose Arms they set up in the room of those Images In this Period there is an equal mixture of Falshood and Malice 1. The Parliament did not order the removal of Images It was done by the King's Visitors before the Parliament sat 2. The total removal of Images was not done the first Year only those Images that were abused to Superstition were taken down and a Year after the total removal followed 3. They took care that this should be done regularly not by the Visitors who only carried the King's Injunctions about it but by the Curats themselves 4. They did not order the King's Arms to be put in the place where the Cross had stood It grew indeed to be a custom to set them up in all Churches thereby expressing that they acknowledged the King's Authority reached even to their Churches but there was no Order made about it 5. I leave him to the Correction of the Heraulds for saying the King's Arms are Three Leopards when every Body knows they are three Lions and a Lion not a Dog is one Supporter and the other is a Dragon not a Serpent 6. By their setting up the King's Arms and not his Picture it is plain they had no thought of worshipping their King but did only acknowledg his Authority 7. It was no less clear that they had no design against the Worship due to Jesus Christ nor that inferiour respect due to the Blessed Virgin and Saints but intended only to wean the People from that which at best was but Pageantry but as it was practised was manifest Idolatry And the painting on the Walls of the Churches the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer with many other passages of Scripture that were of most general use shewed they intended only to cleanse their Churches from those mixtures of Heathenism that had been brought into the Christian Religion Pag. 193. 19. He says They took away the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ that they might thereby give some colour to the converting of the Sacred Vessels to the King's use They took away no part of the Institution of Christ for they set it down in the Act past about it and recited all the words of the first Institution of the Sacrament they only condemned private Masses as contrary to Christ's Institution They did not convert the Holy Vessels to the King's use nor were they taken out of the Churches till five Years after this that the Necessities of the Government either real or pretended were alleged to excuse the taking away the superfluous Plate that was in Churches But this was not done by Act of Parliament but by Commissioners empowred by the King who were ordered to leave in every Church such Vessels as were necessary for the Administration of the Sacraments Ibid. 20. He says The Parliament ordered the Prayers to be in the Vulgar Tongue and upon that he infers that the Irish the Welsh and the Cornish-men were now in a much worse condition than before since they understood no English so that the Worship was to them in a Tongue more unknown than it had formerly been The Parliament made no such Order at this Time the Book of Common Prayer was set out first by the King's Authority and ratified by the subsequent Session of Parliament There was also a Design which though it was then accomplished yet it was done afterwards of translating the Liturgy into these Tongues but still the English was much more understood by all sorts of Men among them than the Latin had been 21. He says The Office of the Communion Pag. 194. appointed by this Parliament differed very little from the Mass save that it was in English The Error of the Parliaments appointing the new Offices runs through all he says on this
200 went away as themselves published it but our Author was generous and free-hearted so that he would make the Exiles to bear some proportion to the Ministers that were burnt and as he made some hundreds of the one so 30000 was but a moderate number to be exiled 200 would have sounded pitifully in such an Heroical Work Ibid. 66. He says It was brought under Debate whether Peter Martyr should be burnt but because he came into England upon the Publick Faith he was let go yet his Wives Body was raised out of the Church-yard and cast into a Dunghil and Bucer and Fagius's Bodies were burnt It could not be debated whether Peter Martyr should be burnt for the Laws of Burning were not made till a Year after he went out of England and the raising his Wives Body and the burning the other Bodies was done almost four Years after this though our Author relates it as done at the same time 67. He says Ibid. The Queen at first could not repeal the Laws then in force for Heresy but she suspended them all and exhorted her Subjects to return to the Catholick Rites upon which the People did universally return to them The Queen could neither repeal nor suspend the Laws then in force and she did neither When she was in Suffolk she promised the Religion established by Law should not be changed When she came to London she declared she would force no Consciences but soon after she added a Limitation to this Till the Parliament should order it After that all People were encouraged to set up the Mass every-where and it did spread into most parts of the Kingdom but this was done both against Law and the Queen 's Royal Word 68. He says ' All Pulpits were opened to Catholick Preachers Ibid. and the Hereticks were not suffered to preach This he relates as if it had been the effect of the Peoples Zeal but it flowed from a Proclamation of the Queen's that none should preach unless he obtained a License under the Great Seal which was as high an Act of Supremacy as ever her Father did 69. He says Ibid. She made first of all Funeral Rites to be performed for her Brother after the form of the Catholicks though he had died in Heresy and intended to have had such Rites from her Father but being better instructed she found it could not be done for him that had been the chief Author of the Schism and of all the evil that followed it King Edward was buried according to the Rites of the English Liturgy so that the Funeral Rites were not according to the old Forms It is true the Queen had in her own Chappel such Rites for him As for her Father some of the Writers of that Time say it was much pressed to have his Body at least raised and carried out of the Consecrated Ground if not burnt and in this she is said to have stood upon the Dignity of a Crowned Head and the decency of a Daughters Duty to her Fathers Ashes so that she would not consent to so barbarous a thing 70. He condemns those who having been defiled with Heresy Pag. 233 and thereby under Censures did notwithstanding that administer the Sacraments and do the other Offices of Priesthood before they were reconciled to the See of Rome This he says was such a Sin that it may be reckoned one of the Causes of that Queen's dying so soon and he sets down as a Caution for the future that if we should come to be again reconciled to that See we might not relapse into the like Error This was indeed Cardinal Pool's Advice that the whole Kingdom ought to have been put under an Interdict and that all Holy Offices were to cease till they were reconciled to the See of Rome but the whole Clergy not only many as he says being involved in those Censures if they had staied for officiating till they had been reconciled to the See of Rome perhaps it had not been done at all Ibid. 71. He says The Queen partly by her Authority partly by the concurrence of the Parliament got the ancient way of the Service to be again restored the Hereticks not daring to oppose it much All that was done in the first Parliament was the restoring things to the same state they had been in when King Henry died which was indeed the setting up that they called Schisme by Law It was no wonder those he calls Hereticks could not oppose it much when so many of their Bishops had been turned out and imprisoned others were violently thrust out of the House of Lords and the Elections of the Members of Parliament had been so managed that in many places Force was used and false Returns were made in other Places Pag. 234. 72. He says Only one that was bolder than the rest threw a Dagger at him who preached the first Catholick Sermon at St. Pauls and another discharged a Pistol at another preaching in the same place This one would think by his Relation was done after the Parliament had set up the Mass again whereas it was soon after the Queen came to the Crown long before the Parliament and that of the Pistol was some months after the Parliament But if he had designed to deliver a true History to the World he should have added that upon the Tumult that was raised against the Preacher he prayed Mr. Bradford and Mr. Rogers two afterwards burnt for the Reformed Religion to speak to the People and perswade them to be quiet upon which they both exhorted the People to behave themselves more peaceably and reverently and Bradford went into the Pulpit that he might be the better heard and so near was he to the Danger that the Dagger pierced his Sleeve yet these two were had in such esteem that the Tumult was quieted and they carried the Preacher safe home One of them being to preach in the Afternoon exhorted the People to be peaceable and quiet and severely condemned the Tumult that had been in the morning But such was the gratitude and justice of the Popish Party that it was pretended because they had appeased the Tumult that therefore they had also raised it so they were upon that pretence put in Prison where they lay a Year and a half till the Laws for burning were revived and were then burnt for Heresy Pag. 235. 73. He says Commendone was sent by Order from the Pope into England who obtained a Writing from the Queen wherein she promised Obedience to the See of Rome upon which Pool was appointed Legat. It is no wonder our Author understood not the Affairs of the Reformation aright when he was so ill informed about the Transactions of his own Party Commendone was not sent by the Pope to England The Legat at Brussels sent him over from thence without staying for Orders from Rome Page 239. 74. He says William Thomas Clerk of the Council had conspired to