Case that your Subjects should either examine by what right Ecclesiastical Government is Innovated or enquire how far they are bound thereby since beside that it might cause Division and hazzard the Overthrow both of the one and the other Authority it would give that Offence and Scandal abroad that Forein Princes would both reprove and disallow all our Proceedings in this kind and upon occasion be disposed easily to joyn against us Thus my Lord Herbert relates this excellent Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever could be said against it the Popes Supremacy was excluded and the King Married Anne Boleign which is thus set down by Stow continued by How 's Pag. 554. KIng Henry upon occasion of these delays made by the Pope in his Controversie of Divorce and through Displeasure of such Reports as he heard had been made of him to the Court of Rome and Thirdly moved by some Counsellors to follow the example of the Germans caused a Proclamation to be made in the Two and twentieth year of his Reign forbidding all his Subjects to purchase any manner of thing from the Court of Rome And obtaining a Divorce from Queen Catherine his Wife by an Act of Parliament he privately Married Anne Boleign And upon that by another Act of Parliament the Pope with all his Authority was clean banished his Realm and Order taken that he should no more be called Pope but Bishop of Rome and the King to be taken and reputed as Supream Head of the Church of England having full Authority to Reform all Errors Heresies and Abuses in the same It was further Enacted by another Act of Parliament That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome but from the Commissary to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop from the Archbishop to the King and all Causes of the King to be tryed in the Upper-House of Parliament Moreover the First-Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Dignities and Promotions were granted to the King Thus far Stow. This Deserting of the Pope is thus related by Dr. Heylyn in the Preface of his History of Reformation KIng Henry the Eighth being violently hurried with the Transport of some private Affections And finding that the Pope appeared the greatest Obstacle to his desires he extinguished his Authority in the Realm of England This opened the first way to the Reformation and gave encouragement to those who inclined unto it To which the King afforded no small countenance out of Politick Ends. But for his own part he adhered to his Old Religion severely Persecuting those that Dissented from it And died though Excommunicated in that Faith and Doctrine which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers milk And of which he shewed himself so stout a Champion against Luther Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the beginning of this prodigious Change of Religion The first Opposition against this sudden Change was a Sermon of one Friar Peto in opposition to the King 's second Marriage Thus related by Howes upon Stow Pag. 562. THe First that openly resisted or reprehended the King touching his Marriage with Anne Boleign was one Friar Peto a simple Man yet very Devout of the Ordâ—… of the Observants This Man Preaching at Greenwich upon the Two and twentieth Chapter of the third Book of the Kings to wit the last part of the story of Achab saying Even where the Dogs licked the Blood of Nabaoth even there shall Dogs lick thy Blood also O King And therewithal spake of the Lying Prophets which abused the King c. I am saith he that Micheas whom you will hate because I must tell you truly that this Marriage is unlawful And I know that I shall eat the Bread of Affliction and drink the Water of Sorrow yet because our Lord hath put it into my mouth I must speak it And when he had strongly enveighed against the King's second Marriage to diswade him from it he also said There are many other Preachers yea too many which Preach and Perswade you otherwise feeding your folly and frail Affections upon hope of their own worldly Promotion and by that means betray your Soul your Honour and Posterity to obtain Fat Benefices to become Rich Abbots and get Episcopal Jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical Dignities These I say are the Four hundred Prophets who in the spirit of Lying seek to deceive you But take good heed lest you being seduced find Achab ' s punishment which was to have his Blood licked up by Dogs saying that it was one of the greatest miseries in Princes to be daily abused by Flatterers The King being thus reproved endured it patiently and did no violence to Peto But the next Sunday Dr. Curwin Preached in the same place who most sharply reprehended Peto and his Preaching calling him Dog Slanderer base beggarly Friar Rebel Traytor saying that no Subject should speak so audaciously to Princes And having spoken much to that effect and in Commendation of the King's Marriage thereby to Establish his Seed in his Seat for ever c. He then supposing that he had utterly suppressed Peto and his partakers lifted up his voice and said I speak to thee Peto which makest thy self Micheas that thou mayst speak evil of Kings But now thou art not to be found being fled for fear and shame as being unable to answer my Arguments And whilst he thus spake there was one Elstow a fellow Friar to Peto standing in the Rood-loft who said to Dr. Curwin Good Sir you know that Father Peto as he was Commanded is now gone to a Provincial Council held at Canterbury and not fled for fear of you for to morrow he will return again In the mean time I am here as another Micheas and will lay down my Life to prove all those things true which he hath taught out of the holy Scripture and to this Combate 〈◊〉 challenge thee before God and all equal Judges even unto thee Curwin I say which art one of the Four hundred false Prophets into whom the spirit of Lying is entred and seekest by Adultery to establish a Succession betraying the King unto endless Perdition more for thine own vain Glory and hope of Promotion than for discharge of thy clogged Conscience and the King's Salvation This Elstow waxed hot and spake very earnestly so as they could not make him cease his Speech until the King himself bad him hold his peace And gave Order that He and Peto should be Convented before the Council which was done the next day And when the Lords had rebuked them then the Earl of Essex told them that they had deserved to be put into a Sack and cast into the Thames Whereunto Elstow smiling said Threaten these things to Rich and Dainty Persons who are clothed in Purple fare Deliciously and have their chiefest hope in this World For we esteem them not but are joyful that for the discharge of our Duty we are driven hence
and every Act or Acts of Parliament concerning Doctrine and matters of Religion and all and every Article Branch Sentence and Matter Pains and Forfeitures in the same contained By which repeal all Men seem to have been put into a liberty of reading Scripture and being in a manner their own Expositors and of entertaining what Opinions in Religion best pleased their fancies and promulgating such Opinions as they entertained So that the English enjoyed that liberty which the Romans are affirmed by Tacitus to have enjoyed without control in the times of Nerva that is to say A liberty of being of what Opinion they pleased and of speaking freely their Opinions wheresoever they listed There was also an Act passed Entituled An Act against such as speak against the Sacrament of the Altar And to say truth it was but time that some provision should be made to suppress that Irreverence and Profaneness with which the Blessed Sacrament was at that time handled by too many of those who seemed most ignorantly Zealous of Reformation For they reproached it with such names and so unbecoming the mouths of Christians that they were never taken up by the Turks and Infidels There was another Act passed for the Receiving the Communion in both kinds yet with these Provisoes notwithstanding If necessity did not otherwise require as in the Case of sudden Sickness and other such like Extremities in which it was not possible that Wine could be provided for the use of that Sacrament nor the sick Man depart in peace without it And Secondly That the permitting this Liberty to the People of England should not be looked upon as a condemning of any other Church or Churches or their Practices in which the contrary is observed Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these acts of Parliament Another Act of Parliament The next great Business was the Retrieving of a Statute made in the Twenty seventh year of King Henry the Eighth By which all Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels and Hospitals were given to the King But he died before he had taken many of them into his Possession And the Grandees of the Court not being willing to lose so Rich a Booty it was set on foot again and carried in this present Parliament In which were Granted to the King all Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels Hospitals Fraternities Brotherhoods and Gilds not already seized on by his Father with all their Lands and Goods which being sold at a low rate enriched many and ennobled some And therefore made them firm in maintaining the change Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the ground of maintaining this Change of Religion Of Chantries Now as concerning the Nature of these Chantries here given to the King something hath been said out of Mr. Dugdale in the Reign of Henry the Eighth But it will not be amiss in this place to set down what Dr. Heylyn says concerning them pag. 51. His words are these THese Chantries consisted of Salaries to one or more Priests to say Mass daily for the Souls of their deceased Founders and their Friends Which not subsisting of themselves were generally Incorporated and united to some Parochial Collegiate or Cathedral Church no fewer than Forty seven being Founded in St. Paul's Free Chappels which though ordained for the same intent with others yet were independent of stronger Constitution and richer Endowment though therein they fell short of the Colleges which exceed them both in the beauty of their Buildings the number of their Priests maintained by them and the proportion of Revenue allotted to them Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Foundations made for Praying for the Dead A Sermon Preached Now concerning the Suppressing of these Chantries it was Preached at Mercers-Chappel in London by one Dr. Cromer a Man that wished well to the Reformation That if Trentals and Chantry-Masses could avail the Souls in Purgatory then the Parliament did not well in giving away Colleges Chantries c. which served principally for that purpose But if the Parliament did well in dissolving and bestowing them on the King which he thought that no Man could deny then was it a plane case that such Chantries and private Masses did confer no Relief on the Souls in Purgatory Which Dilemma though it were unanswerable yet was the matter so handled by the Bishops seeing how much the Doctrine of the Church was concerned therein that they brought him to a Recantation at St. Paul's-Cross in the June next following this Sermon being Preached in Lent where he confessed himself to have been seduced by naughty Books contrary to the Doctrine then received in the Church But the current of these times have run another way and Cromer might now have Preached that safely for which before he had been brought into so much trouble Thus far Dr. Heylyn as to these Chantries An Act of Parliament for the Election of Bishops BUt that which made the greatest Alteration and threatned most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was The Act Entituled An Act for the Election of Bishops and what Seals and Stiles shall be used by Spiritual Persons c. In which it is Ordained That Bishops should be made by the Kings Letters Patents and not by the Election of the Dean and Chapters and that all their Processes and Writings should be made in the King's Name only with the Bishops Teste added to and Sealed with no other Seal but the Kings or such as should be Authorized and appointed by him In the composing of which Act there was more danger couched than at first appeared By the last branch thereof it was plain and evident That the intent of the Contrivers was by degrees to weaken the Authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their strong hold of Divine Institution and making them no other than the King's Ministers only his Ecclesiastical Sheriffs as a Man might say to execute his Will and disperse his Mandates And of this Act such use was made That the Bishops of those times were not in a capacity of Conferring Orders but as they were thereunto impowered by special Licence The tenor whereof if Saunders be to be believed was in these words to wit The King to such a Bishop Greeting Whereas All and All manner of Jurisdiction as well Ecclesiastical as Civil flows from the King as from the Supreme of all the Body c. We therefore Give and Grant to you Full Power and Licence to continue during our good Pleasure of conferring Orders within your Diocess and promoting fit Persons unto Holy Orders even to that of Priesthood Which being looked upon by Queen Mary not only as a dangerous Diminution of the Episcopal Power but as likewise an odious Innovation in the Church She caused this Act to be Repealed in the First year of her Reign There was also in the first branch more contained than did appear For though it seem'd to aim at nothing but that the Bishops should depend wholly upon the King for their Preferment yet the true drift of that Design was
Tomb of the Dead with his face toward the North. Which is to be observed the rather because this Curate hath found so many followers in these latter times For as some of the Preciser sort have of late left the Church to Preach in Woods and Barns c. and in stead of the old Days and Months can find no other Title for them than the First Second or Third Month of the Year and so of the Days of the Week c. So was it propounded not long since by some State Reformers That the Fast of Lent should be kept no longer between Shrove-tide and Easter but rather by some Act or Ordinance made for that purpose betwixt Easter and Whitsontide To such wild Fancies do Men grow when once they break those Bounds and neglect those Rules which wise Antiquity ordained for the Preservation of Peace and Order Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Confusions If it be asked What in the mean time was become of Bishops and why no care was taken for the Purging those peccant Humors It may be answered That the Wings of their Authority had been so clipped that it was scarce able to fly abroad The Sentence of Excommunication not having been in use since the first of this King Whether it were that Command was laid upon the Bishops by which they were restrained from the Exercise of it or that some other course was in agitation for drawing the Cognizance of all Ecclesiastical causes to the Court of Westminster or that it was thought inconsistent with that dreadful Sentence to be issued in the King's Name as it had been lately appointed by Act of Parliament it is not casie to determine But certain it is that at this time it was either abolished for the present or of no effect not only to the cherishing of these Disorders amongst the Ministers of the Church but to the great encrease of viciousness in all sorts of men Lechery saith Bishop Latimer is used in England and such Lechery as is used in no other part of the World And it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter a Trifle not to be regarded not to be reformed Peter Martyr much bemoans the miserable condition of the Church for want of Preachers Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Disorders Altars taken down But the great business this year was the taking down of Altars The Principal Motive whereunto was the Opinion of some dislikes which had been taken by Calvin against the Liturgy and the desire of those of the Zuinglian Faction to reduce this Church unto the Nakedness and Simplicity of those Transmarine Churches which followed the Helvetian or Calvinian Forms and withal to abolish the thought of a Sacrifice But that the consideration of Profit did advance this work as much as any other if perchance not more may be collected from an Enquiry made about Two years after In which it was to be Interrogated What Jewels of Gold and Silver or Silver-Crosses Candlesticks Censers Chalices Copes and other Vestments were then remaining in any of the Cathedral or Parochial Churches or otherwise had been Embezzeled or taken away The leaving of one Chalice to every Church with a Cloth or Covering for the Communion-Table being thought sufficient Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this strange way of Reforming or rather Deforming all things Reasons given for the taking down of Altars The Reasons that were given for the doing of this were these First To with-draw the People from the Opinion of the Mass to the right use of the Lord's Supper The use of an Altar being to Sacrifice upon and the use of a Table to eat upon And therefore a Table to be far more fit for our feeding on him who was once only crucified and offered for us Secondly That in the Book of Common-Prayer the name of Altar and Lord's Board and Table are used indifferently without Prescribing any thing in the form thereof For as it is called a Table and the Lord's Board in reference to the Lord's Supper so it is called an Altar also in reference to the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving And so that the changing of Altars into Tables was no way repugnant to the Rules of the Liturgy Thirdly That Altars were erected for the Sacrifices of the Law which being now ceased the Form of the Altar was to cease together with them Fourthly That as Christ did Institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood at a Table and not at an Altar so it is not to be found that any of the Apostles did ever use an Altar in the Ministration And finally That it is declared in the Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer That if any Doubt arise in the use and practising of the said Book that then to appease all such diversity the matter shall be referred unto the Bishop of the Diocess who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting of it Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Reasons Page 96. But the taking down of Altars being Decreed and Commanded a question afterwards did arise about the Form of the Lord's Board some using it in the form of a Table and some in the form of an Altar Ridley Bishop of London determined it for the form of a Table to abolish all memory of the Mass And upon this caused the Wall standing on the back-side of the Altar in the Church of St. Paul's to be broken down for an example to the rest But yet there followed no universal change of Altars into Tables in all parts of the Realm till the repealing of the first Liturgy in which the Priest is appointed to stand before the midst of the Altar in the Celebration and the establishing of the Second in which it is required That the Priest shall stand on the North-side of the Table which put an end to the Dispute Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Altars CHAP. VIII Of the strange Confusion in all matters of Religion which this new Change of Religion caused no man yet knowing positively and dogmatically what he was to believe Dr. Heylyn Page 106. Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 5. NOthing as yet had been concluded positively and dogmatically in Points of Doctrine but as they were to be collected from the Homilies and the Publick Liturgy and those but few in reference to the many Controversies which were to be maintained against the Sectaries of that Age Many Disorders having grown up in this little time in officiating the Liturgy the Vestures of the Church and the Habit of Church-men begun by Calvin prosecuted by Hooper and countenanced by the large Immunities granted to John a Lasco and his Church of Strangers And unto these the change of Altars into Tables gave no small encrease as well by reason of some differences which grew amongst the Ministers themselves upon that occasion as in regard of the irreverence which it bred in the People to whom it made the Sacrament to appear less venerable than before it did The People had been
First-Fruits For the better drawing on of which Concession it was pretended that the Patrimony of the Crown had been much dilapidated and that it could not be Supported with such Honor as it ought to be if Restitution were not made of such Rents as were of late dismembred from it Upon which ground they also passed an Act for the Dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and Established by the Queen deceased When the Act of Parliament concerning the Supremacy came to be Debated it seemed to be a thing abhorrent even in Nature and Policy that a Woman should be declared Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England But those of the Reformed Party meant nothing else than to contend about words so they might gain the Point they aimed at Which was the stripping of the Pope of all Authority within these Dominions and fixing the Supream Ecclesiastical Power in the Crown Imperial And this they did not by the Name of Supreme Head which they perceived might be lyable to some just Exceptions but which comes all to one of Supreme Governess Thus Dr. Heylyn I will here insert a Speech made in this Parliament against this Supreme Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority granted to the Queen The Person that spake it was Nicholas Heath who was First Bishop of Worcester and Lord President of Wales Afterwards Archbishop of York and Embassador into Germany And made Lord Chancellor of England by Queen Mary in the year of our Lord 1555 and continued until he did surrender it up in Queen Elizabeth's time to Sir Nicholas Bacon The Person from whom I had this Speech is yet living who told me That he found it in Manuscript amongst Papers and Notes of his great Grandfather George Parry who had been High Sheriff of Hereford-shire in the Second year of the said Queen A Speech Made in the Upper House of Parliament against the Supremacy to be in her Majesty by Nicholas Heath Lord Chancellor of England in the first year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth above 100 years since In the Original Copy it is stiled A Tale told in Parliament For Oaths the Land shall be cloathed in Mourning My Lords WIth all humble Submission of my whole Discourse to your Wisdoms I purpose to speak to the Body of this Act touching the Supremacy that so what this Honourable Assembly is now a doing concerning the passing of this Act may thereby be better weighed and considered by your Wisdoms First When by the Virtue of this Act of the Supremacy we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome it would be considered what matter lieth therein and what matter of danger or inconvenience or else whether there be none at all Secondly If the intent of this Act be to grant or settle upon the Queens Majesty a Supremacy it would be considered of your Wisdoms what this Supremacy is and whether it doth consist in Spiritual Government or Temporal If in Temporal what further Authority can this House give Her more than what She already hath by right of Inheritance And not by our Gift but by the Appointment of God Being our Sovereign Lord and Lady our King and Queen our Empress and Emperor And if further than this we acknowledge Her to be Head of the Church of England we ough also to grant that the Emperor or any other Prince being Catholick and their Subjects Protestants are to be Heads of their Church Whereby we shall do an Act as disagreeable to Protestants as this seems to Catholicks If you say The Supremacy consists in Spiritual concernments Then it would be considered what the Spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly consist Which being first agreed upon it would be further considered of your Wisdoms whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not And whether her Highness be an apt Person to receive the same So by through Examination of these parts your Honors shall proceed in this matter groundedly upon such sure knowledge as not to be deceived by ignorance Now to the First Point wherein I promised to examine what matter of weight danger or inconvenience might be incurred by this our forsaking and flying from the Church of Rome if there were no further matter therein than the with-drawing our Obedience from the Popes Person supposing that he had declared himself to be a very Austere and Severe Father to us then the business were not of so great importance as indeed it is as will immediately here appear For by relinquishing and forsaking the Church or See of Rome we must forsake and fly from all General Councils Secondly From all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ. Thirdly From the Judgment of all other Christian Princes Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's Church and so by leaping out of Peter's Ship we hazard our selves to be over-whelmed in the waves of Schism of Sects and Divisions First Touching the General Councils I shall name unto you these Four The Nicene Council the Constantinopolitan Council the Ephesine and the Chalcedon All which are approved by all Men. Of these same Councils Saint Gregory writeth in this wise Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros sic haec quatuor Concilia Nicenum Constantinopolitanum Ephesinum Chalcedonense suscipere ac venerari me fareor That is to say in English I confess I do receive and reverence those Four General Councils of Nice Constantinople c. even as I do the Four Holy Evangelists At the Nicene Council the first of the Four the Bishops which were there Assembled did write there Epistles to Sylvester then Bishop of Rome That their decrees then made might be confirmed by his Authority At the Council kept at Constantinople all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus then Bishop of Rome He as chief in the Council gave Sentence against the Hereticks Macedonius Sabellius and Eunomius Which Eunomius was both an Arrian and the first Author of that Heresie That only Faith doth justifie And here by the way it is much to be lamented that we the Inhabitants of this Realm are much more inclined to raise up the Errors and Sects of Ancient condemned Hereticks than to follow the True Approved Doctrine of the most Catholick and Learned Fathers of Christ his Church At the Ephesine Council Nestorius the Heretick was condemned by Celestine the Bishop of Rome he being chief Judge there At the Chalcedon Council all the Bishops there Assembled did write their humble Submission unto Leo then Bishop of Rome wherein they did acknowledge him there to be their Chief Head Six Hundred and Thirty Bishops of them Therefore to deny the See Apostolick and its Authority were to contemn and set at nought the Authority and Decrees of those noble Councils Secondly We must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ his Church whereunto we have already professed our
Book might be approved by Our Authority and withal in a copious Oration manifested unto Us that as your Majesty hath confuted the notorious Errors of the same Martin Luther from true and convincing Reasons and unanswerable Authorities of the holy Scriptures and Fathers so that you will be ready with all the Forces and Arms of your Kingdom to punish and prosecute all such as shall presume to follow or defend any of the said Opinions Whereupon we have with all care and diligence perused the same Book and finding it to contain admirable Doctrine and full of the Spirit of God do give God infinite thanks from whom proceeds every good and perfect Gift for having thus inspir'd your mind and enabled you by his Grace to compose this Work for the defence of his holy Faith against this raiser up of old condemned Errors and to the inviting of other Kings and Christian Princes to follow your example in protecting Orthodox Faith and Evangelical Truth now expos'd to great danger and many oppositions We upon this likewise judging it just and reasonable to confer all Honour and Praises upon such as have employ'd their pious Labours in the defence of the said Christian Faith do not only extol and magnifie approve and confirm by Our Authority what your Majesty hath with so much solid Learning and Eloquence written against the same Martin Luther but do likewise confer upon your Majesty such a Title of Honour that by it all the Faithful may understand both now and for all future times how grateful and acceptable this your Majesties Gift hath been unto Us especially offered at this time We who are the true Successor of St Peter whom Christ ascending up to Heaven lest as his Vicar upon Earth committing to him the care of his Flock We I say sitting in this holy See having with mature Deliberation considered of this business with Our Brethren do with their unanimous Counsel and consent grant unto your Majesty the Title of Defender of the Faith which We do by these presents confirm unto you commanding all the Faithful to give your Majesty this Title and when they write unto you after the word King to annex this other of Defender of the Faith And assuredly if the excellency and dignity of this Title and your singular merits be well weigh'd and considered We could not have thought of any name more Noble nor better agreeable to your Majesty then this which as often as you hear and read you will have occasion to reflect upon your own Virtue and Merit not becoming more proud thereby but according to your wonted Prudence rather more humble and more establish'd in the Faith of Christ and respect towards this holy See rejoycing in our Lord the Giver of all Good things and leaving unto your Posterity this perpetual and immortal monument of your Glory shewing them the way that if they desire to possess this Title they labour to do works of this kind and to imitate your Majesties example who having deserv'd so much from Us and this See We give you Our Benediction and also to your Wife and Children and all that shall be born of them In the name of him from whom We have receiv'd this Power Beseeching the Almighty who said By me Kings reign and Princes command and in whose Hands the Hearts of all Kings are that he will confirm you in this holy Resolutiand encrease your Devotion and make your Actions for the preservation of Faith so illustrious throughout the whole World That no Man may have occasion to judge that this Title is confer'd upon you in vain And lastly Our Prayer is That your Majesty having happily pass'd the course of this present life may be made partaker of Eternal Glory Dated at Rome at St. Peters c. Thus far my Lord Herberts History I will now relate some other favours shew'd to him by Popes HE receiv'd from Pope Clement a Rose of Gold for a Present The reception of it is thus related by Sir Rich. Baker page 391. Doctor Thomas Hannibal Master of the Rolls was receiv'd into London by Earls Bishops and diverse Lords and Gentlemen as Embassador from Pope Clement who brought with him a Rose of Gold for a Present to the King and on the day of the Nativity of our Lady after a Solemn Mass sung by the Cardinal of York the said Present was delivered to the King which was a Tree forged of fine Gold with Branches Leaves and Flowers resembling Roses Thus far Sir Rich. Baker ANother Present was sent him by Pope Julius whereof there is this Relation in the same History page 376. Pope Julius the second sent to King Henry a Cap of Maintenance and a Sword and being angry with the King of France tranferred by Authority of the Lateran Council the Title of Christianissimo from him upon King Henry which with great solemnity was published the Sunday following at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul Thus far Sir Rich. Baker CHAP. I. The First Ground of the change of Religion in England was the business of the Kings Divorce from Queen Catherine which when it came to be publickly examined the Queen made this following Speech THe Queen according to the Form being called upon to come into the Court made no Answer but rose out of her Chair and came to the King kneeling down at his Feet to whom she said The Queens Speech SIR IN what have I offended you or what occasion of displeasure have I given you intending thus to put me from you I take God to be my Judge I have been to you a true and humble Wife ever conformable to your Will and Pleasure never contradicting or gain-saying you in any thing being always contented with all things wherein you had any delight or took any pleasure without grudge or countenance of discontent or displeasure I lov'd for your sake all them whom you lov'd whether I had cause or no whether they were my Friends or my Enemies I have been your Wife these twenty years or more and you had by me divers Children and when you had me at first I take God to be my Judg that I was a Maid and whether it be true or no I put it to your own Conscience If there be any just cause that you can alledge against me either of dishonesty or matter lawful to put me from you I am content to depart to my shame and confusion and if there be none then I pray you to let me have Justice at your Hands The King your Father was in his time of such an excellent Wit that he was accounted amongst all men for Wisdom to be a second Salomon and the King of Spain my Father Ferdinand was accounted one of the wisest Princes that had reign'd in Spain for many years It is not therefore to be doubted but that they had gathered as wise Counsellors unto them of every Realm as to their Wisdoms they thought meet and I conceive that there were in
those days as wise and well-learned men in both the Realms as be now at this day who thought the Marriage between you and me good and lawful Therefore it is a wonder to me what new inventions are now invented against me And now to put me to stand to the Order and Judgment of this Court seems very unreasonable For you may condemn me for want of being able to answer for my self as having no Counse but such as you assigned me who cannot be indifferent on my part since they are your own Subjects and such as you have taken and chosen out of your own Council whereunto they are privy and dare not disclose your Will and Intent Therefore I humbly pray you to spare me until I may know what Counsel my Friends in Spain will advise me to take And if you will not then your Pleasure be fulfilled And with that she rose up and departed never more appearing in any Court The King perceiving that she was gone said I Will now in her Absence declare this unto you all That She has been unto me as True and Obedient a Wife as I would wish or desire She has all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a Woman of her Dignity or in any other of Mean Condition She is also surely a Noble Woman born Her Condition will well declare it After this the King sent the Two Cardinals Campeius and Wolsey to speak with her WHen the Queen was told that the Cardinals were come to speak with Her She rose up and with a Skein of white Thred about her neck came into her Chamber of Presence The Cardinals said they were sent by the King to understand her mind concerning the business between Him and Her My Lords saith the Queen I cannot answer you so suddenly for I was set among my Maids at work little thinking of any such matter wherein there needs a longer deliberation and a better head then mine to make Answer For I have need of Counsel in this case which concerns me so near and for any Counsel or Friends that I can find in England they are not for my Profit For it is not likely that any English man will Counsel me or be a Friend to me against the King's Pleasure since they are his Subjects And for my Counsel in which I may trust they are in Spain The Cardinals returning to the King gave him an account of what She said Thus the case went forward from Court to Court till it came to Judgment The King's Counsel at the Bar called for Judgment unto whom Cardinal Campeius said thus I will not give Judgment till I have made relation to the Pope of all our proceedings whose Counsel and Command I will observe The matter is too high for us to give an hasty Judgment considering the Highness of the Persons and doubtfulness of the Case and also whose Commissioners we be under whose Authority we sit It were therefore reason that we should make our Chief Head a Counsel in the same before we proceed to a definitive sentence I come not to please for Favour Need or Dread of any Person alive be he King or otherwise I have no such respect to the Person that I will offend my Conscience I will not for the Favour or Disfavour of any High Estate do that thing which shall be against the Will of God I am an old man both weak and sickly that look daily for death I will not wade any further in this matter until I have the Opinion and Assent of the Pope Wherefore I will adjourn the Court for this time according to the Order of the Court of Rome from whence such Jurisdiction is deriv'd Upon this the Court was dissolv'd and no more done Then step'd forth the Duke of Suffolk from the King and uttered with an haughty Countenance these words It was never merry in ENGLAND since we had any Cardinals amongst us Thus far Stow. Upon this there was a Debate held in Council Whether it were convenient for the King to Assume to himself the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs In opposition to which there was this Speech made related in my Lord Herbert ' s History pag. 362. SIR YOur Highness is come to a point which needs a strong and firm Resolution it being not only the most important in its self that can be presented but likewise of that consequence that it will comprehend your Kingdom and Posterity It is whether in this business of your Divorce and Second Marriage as well as in all other Ecclesiastical Affairs in your Dominions you would make use of your own or the Popes Authority For my own part as an Englishman and your Highnes's Subject I must wish all Power in your Highness But when I consider the Ancient practice of this Kingdom I cannot but think any Innovation dangerous For if in every Temporal Estate it be necessary to come to some Supream Authority whence all inferior Magistracy should be derived it seems much more necessary in Religion both as the Body thereof seems more susceptible of a Head than any else and as that Head again must direct so many others We should therefore above all things labour to keep an unity in the parts thereof as being the Sacred bond which knits and holds together not its own alone but all other Government But how much Sir should we recede from the Dignity thereof if we at once retrenched this its chief and most eminent part And who ever liked that Body long whose Head was taken away Certainly Sir an Authority received for many Ages ought not rashly to be rejected For is not the Pope Communis Pater in the Christian World and Arbiter of their Differences Does not he Support the Majesty of Religion and vindicate it from neglect Does not the holding his Authority from God keep Men in awe not of Temporal alone but Eternal punishments and therein extend his Power beyond death it self And will it be secure to lay aside those potent means of reducing People to their Duty and trust only to the Sword of Justice and Secular Arms Besides who shall mitigate the rigor of Laws in those Cases which may admit exception if the Pope be taken away Who shall presume to give Orders or Administer the Sacraments of the Church Who shall be Depository of the Oaths and Leagues of Princes Or Fulminate against the perjur'd Infractors of them For my part as Affairs now stand I find not how either a general Peace amongst Princes or any equal moderation in Humane Affairs can be well conserved without him For as his Court is a kind of Chancery to all other Courts of Justice in the Christian World so if you take it away you subvert that Equity and Conscience which should be the Rule and Interpreter of all Laws and Constitutions whatsoever I will conclude that I wish your Highness as my King and Sovereign all true Greatness and Happiness but think it not fit in this
Auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God For the which most Godly study pain and travel of His Majesty and determination and resolution of the Premises His humble and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled not only render and give unto His Highness their most high and hearty Thanks and think themselves most bound to Pray for the long continuance of his Graces most Royal Estate and Dignity And being also desirous that his most Godly enterprize may be well accomplished and brought to a full end and perfection and so Established that the same might be to the Honor of God and after to the common Quiet Unity and Concord to be had in the whole Body of this Realm for ever Do most humbly beseech His Royal Majesty that the Resolution and Determination above written of the said Articles may be established and perpetually perfected by the Authority of this present Parliament It is therefore Ordained and Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and by the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any Person or Persons within this Realm of England or in any other of the Kings Dominions do by Word Writing Printing Ciphering or any otherwise Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold any Opinion 1. That in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar under the Form of Bread and Wine after the Consecration thereof there is not present really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the said Consecration there remains any Substance of Bread or Wine or any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man or likewise to Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold Opinion that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread there is not the very Blood of Christ or that with the Blood under the Form of Wine there is not the very Flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together or by any the means abovesaid or otherwise do Preach Teach Declare or Affirm the said Sacrament to be of other Substance than is abovesaid or do by any means Contemn Deprave or Despise the said Blessed Sacrament that then such Person or Persons so offending shall be deemed and adjudged Hereticks and that every such offence shall be judged manifest Heresie and that every such Offender and Offenders shall therefore have and suffer Judgment Execution Pain and Pains of Death by way of Burning without any Abjuration Clergy or Sanctuary and their Estates to be Confiscated to the King as in Cases of High Treason 2. And moreover if any do obstinately Affirm Uphold Maintain or Defend that the Communion of the Blessed Sacrament in both kinds that is to say in Form of Bread and also of Wine is necessary for the health of Man's Soul or that it ought or should be Given and Administred to any Persons in both kinds or that it is necessary so to be taken or received by any Person other than Priests being at Mass and Consecrating the same 3. Or that any Man after having received the Order of Priesthood may marry 4. Or that any Man or Woman who hath advisedly vowed or professed Chastity or Widowhood may marry 5. Or that Private Masses be not lawful or not laudable or should not be celebrated had nor used in the Realm nor be not agreeable to the Laws of God 6. Or that Auricular Confession is not expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God Such Persons are to suffer pains of death as in cases of Felony without any benefit of Clergie or Priviledge of Church or Sanctuary and shall forfeit all their Lands and Goods as in cases of Felony Thus far out of the same Book CHAP. IV. Of another Effect of this Change which was a horrid Effusion of Blood QUeen Anne Boleign who had been the first occasion of this Change of Religion was beheaded Whereof there is this Relation Baker pag. 407. It was now the Twenty eighth year of King Henries Reign When there were solemn Justs at Greenwich from whence the King suddenly departed and came to Westminster Whose sudden departure struck amazement into many but to the Queen especially And not without cause For the next day the Lord Rochford her Brother and Henry Norris were brought to the Tower Prisoners Whither also the same day was brought Queen Anne her self Who at the Tower-gate fell on her knees beseeching God to help her as she was innocent of that whereof she was accused Soon after this she was arraigned in the Tower and found guilty and had Judgment pronounced Immediately the Lord Rochford her Brother was likewise Arraigned Who together with Henry Norris Mark Smeton William Brierton and Francis Weston all of the King's Privy-Chamber about matters touching the Queen were beheaded on Tower-hill Within Two days Queen Anne her self on a Scaffold upon the Green within the Tower was also beheaded At her death she spake these words God save my Master and Sovereign the King the most Goodliest Noblest and Gentlest Prince that is and grant him that he may long Reign over you which words she spake with a smiling countenance which done she kneeled down and the Hangman of Calais smote off her head at one stroke For her Religion she was an earnest Professor and one of the first Counternancers of the Gospel The Crimes for which she died were Adultery and Incest She had many Enemies as being a Protestant and perhaps in that respect the King himself not greatly her Friend For though he had excluded the Pope yet he continued a Papist still Her Death cast upon King Henry a dishonorable Imputation Insomuch that whereas the Protestant Princes of Germany had resolved to chuse him for Head of their League after they heard of this Queens Death they utterly refused him Thus far Sir Rich. Baker The next day after her Death the King Married the Lady Jane Seymour Stow Page 573. In the next place Thomas Cromwel who had been the grand Promoter of this business was likewise beheaded Whereof thus writes Howes upon Stow page 508. THomas Cromwel Earl of Essex being in the Council-Chamber was suddenly apprehended and committed to the Tower of London and soon after attainted of Heresie and High Treason When he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-hill to be executed he spake these words I pray you that be here to bear me witness that I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my Faith or in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been an A better of such as have maintained evil Opinions which is untrue But I confess that like as God by his holy Spirit does instruct us
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign of Queen Jane if it had lasted longer than a Nine-days wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the rost and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the wealthy Bishoprick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof he would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of Trent than the poor Titular Queen had been on the South-side of it To carry on whose Interest and maintain her Title the poor remainder of the Churches Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of the Party to make them sure unto that side Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s Preface Summarily concerning this Rapine and Sacriliege which followed this Second Change of Religion Now in the History it self Page 33. Dr. Heylyn begins orderly to treat of the Reign of this King as to matters of Religion as will appear by what shall be here said CHAP. I. Of the many Policies used in the Introducing this Second Change of Religion Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 1. THE Solemnities of the Coronation being passed the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation In which they found Archbishop Cranmer and some other Bishops to be as forward as themselves but on different ends endeavoured by the Bishops out of Zeal but by the Courtiers upon a hope of enriching themselves by the spoil of Bishopricks To the Advancement of which Work the Conjuncture seemed to be as proper as they could desire Fot first the King being of such tender Age and wholly governed by the Wâ—…ll of the Lord Protector who had declared himself a Friend to the Lutheran party in the time of King Henry was easie to be moulded into any form And as the Champions of the Papacy were removed out of all Office so it was thought expedient for the better carrying on of the Design not only to release all such as had been committed unto Prison but also to recal all such as had been forced to abandon the Kingdom for not submitting to King Henries Six Articles But the business was of greater moment than to expect the coming back of these Men. Wherefore neither to lose time nor to press too much at once upon the People it was thought fit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions and this to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments Which Commissioners were accompanied with Preachers appointed to instruct the People And that they might not cool or fall off again from what they had been taught they were to leave some Homilies with the Parish-Priest which the Archbishop had composed Now besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers were to perswade them from Invocation of Saints Praying for the Dead Images Use of Beads Ashes Processions Mass Dirges c. All which was done to this intent That the People being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy Another Policy But there was something more than the Authority of a Minor King which drew on such a general Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protector and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State than to be told That all great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself at the Head of an Army as well for the security of his Person and the preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the raising of an Army there could not be found a fairer colour nor a more popular pretence than a Wat with Scotland not to be made on any new Emergent Quarrel which might be apt to bread suspition in the heads of the People but in pursuit of the great Project of the King Deceased for uniting that Realm by a Marriage to the Crown of England On this Pretence Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germans because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Design should meet with any opposition than the natural English Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this War with Scotland A Third Policy But in the first place care was taken that none of the Neighboring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy That which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a Solemn Obsequy for King Francis the First Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirge to be sung in all the Churches of London as also in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the Quire whereof hung with Black a sumptuous Hearse was set up for the present Ceremony And the next day Archbishop Cranmer assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their rich Miters and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being Preached by Dr. Ridley This great Solemnity being thus honorably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn to their Rendezvous Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning what was done before the calling of a Parliament CHAP. II. Of what was done in Parliament in order to the Establishing this Change of Religion Dr. Heylyn Page 47. A Parliament began upon the Fourth of November in which the Cards were so well pack'd by Sir Ralph Sadler that there was no need of any further Shuffling till the end of the Game This very Parliament without any sensible Alteration of the Members of it being continued until the Death of the King And though this Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending to the present Benefit and Enriching of particular Persons And some again being devised on purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine There was an Act made in King Henry the Eighths time Inhibiting the reading of the Old and New Testament in the English Tongue But this was here abrogated together with all
to make Deans and Chapters useless and thereby to prepare them for a Dissolution Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Act of Parliament I will take leave here although it be not its proper place to insert an Act of Parliament of the third year of this King's Reign concerning the Form to be used in making of Bishops The words of the Act are these to wit THat such form and Manner of Making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons as by Six Prelates and Six other Learned Men or by the most number of them they being appointed and assigned by the King shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal shall be accounted as lawfully exercised and Used and no other Thus Dr. Heylyn page 82. concerning the Election of Bishops From this Alteration which was made in Parliament in reference to the making of Bishops and the way of Exercising their Authority we shall find in the Progress of this story That there was great Havock and Spoyl made of the Bishopricks themselves Two Examples and Testimonies whereof here immediately follow Related thus by Dr. Heylyn pag. 129. THe See of Lincoln being vacant it was kept void from August till the next June During which interval the Patrimony of that great and wealthy Bishoprick one of the richest in the Kingdom was so dismembred in it self so parcelled out for a prey to others That when the new Bishop was to be restored to his Temporals there was none of all his Mannors reserved for him but his Mannor of Bugden together with some Farms and Impropriations The rest was to be raised out of the Profits of his Jurisdiction Yet so that nothing was to be abated in his Tenths and First Fruits which were kept up according to their former value The second Example is this Doctor Barlow being made Bishop of Bath and Wells gratified the Lord Protector with a Present of Eighteen or Nineteen Mannors which anciently belonged unto it And lying all or most part of them in the County of Sommerset seemed very conveniently disposed of for the better maintenance of the Title of Duke of Sommerset which the Protector had taken to himself Many such strange Donations we shall find in others The more to be excused because there was no other Means as the times then were to preserve the whole but by advancing some part thereof to preserve the rest Thus Dr. Heylyn page 130. concerning these Bishopricks And thus far concerning the proceedings of this Parliament CHAP. III. Of several other Alterations in Religion made in the beginning of this Year Of which Dr. Heylyn gives this Account Page 54. Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 2. NO sooner was this year begun but it was Ordered by the King and his Privy Council that no Candles should be born upon Candlemas-day nor Ashes or Palms used any longer The Lords drove this business on so fast That before this Order could be published in the remote parts of the Kingdom they followed it with another as little pleasing to the main Body of the People concerning the taking down of all Images which in some places of the Realm were either not taken down at all as was required the year before by the King's Injunctions or had been Re-edified again as soon as the first heats of the Visitation had began to cool Bishop Gardiner in a Letter of his signified his great dislike of some proceedings had at Portsmouth in taking down the Images of Christ and his Saints certifying withal That he had not only seen these Images standing in all the Churches of the Lutherans but that Luther himself had purposly written a Book against some men that had defaced them And therefore it may be well thought that Covetousness spurred on this business more than Zeal There being none of these Images so poor and mean the spoyl whereof would not afford some Gold and Silver if not Jewels also besides Censers Candlesticks and many other rich Utensils appertaining to them In which respect the Commissioners hereto Authorized were entertained in many places with scorn and railing and the further they went from London the worse they were handled Insomuch as that one of them as he was pulling down an Image in Cornwal was stabbed And though the Principal Offender was hanged which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the storm broke out more violently than before not only to the endangering of the peace of those Western Counties but in a manner of all the Kingdom Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Zeal of the People about the taking down of Images Which great Commotions the Council could not but foresee as the most probable Consequents of such Alterations Especially when they are sudden and press'd too fast There being nothing of which People commonly are so tender as they are of Religion on which their happiness depends not only for this world but the world to come And therefore it concerned them in point of Prudence to let the People see that there was no intention to abolish all their ancient Ceremonies And in particular it was held expedient to give the generality of the Subjects some contentment in a Proclamation for the strict keeping of Lent and the Example of the Court in Pursuance of it For Dr. Glasier Preaching at Paul's Cross affirmed That Lent was not Ordained of God to be Fasted neither the eating of Flesh to be forborn But that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and therefore might be broken by men at their pleasures Upon this there was no scarcity of those that cried down all the Observations of Days and Times even to the Libelling against that ancient and Religious Fast in most scandalous Rhymes Complaint whereof being made by Bishop Gardiner to the Lord Protector a Proclamation was set out by which all People were commanded to abstain from Flesh in the time of Lent and the King's Lenten-dyet was set out and served as in former times Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy To Establish this more firmly there was this following Act of Parliament made concerning it Thus set down in the Statute Book FOrasmuch as divers of the King's Subjects have of late more than in times past broken and contemned such Abstinencies as have been used in this Realm upon Fridays and Saturdays Ember-days Vigils Lent and other accustomed times this Parliament considering that due and godly Abstinence is a means to Virtue and to subdue mens Bodies to their Soul and Spirit And considering withal that Fishers may thereby be more set a work and that by eating of Fish much Flesh shall be saved and encreased and also for divers other Considerations and Commodities of the Realm doth Enact and Ordain That all manner of Statutes Laws Constitutions and Usages concerning any manner of Fasting and Abstinence from any kind of meats heretofore in this Realm made or used shall lose their force and strength and be void and of no effect And also that no Person
Preached and Written partly by divers the natural born Subjects of this Realm and partly being brought in hither from sundry other Forein Countries hath been sowen and spread abroad within the same By reason whereof as well the Spirituality as the Temporality of this Kingdom have swerved from the Obedience of the See Apostolick and declined from the Unity of Christ's Church and have so continued until such time as your Majesty being settled in the Royal Throne the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick sent hither unto your Majesty as a Person undefiled and by God's Goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid and to the whole Realm the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool to call us home again into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandred and strayeâ—… abroad And we after sundry long and grievous Plagues and Calamities seeing by the Goodness of God our own Errors have acknowledged the same unto the same most Reverend Father in God and by him been and are received and embraced into the Unity and bosom of Christ's Church upon our humble submission and promise made for a Declaration of our Repentance to Repeal and Abrogate such Acts and Statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said Twentieth year of the said King against the Supremacy of the See Apostolick as in our Submission exhibited appears The tenor whereof here ensueth We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Assembled in this present Parliament in the Name of our selves and the whole Kingdom do declare our selves very sorry and repentant of the Schism and Disobedience committed in this Realm and the Dominions thereof against the See Apostolick either by making agreeing or executing any Laws Ordinances or Commands against the Supremacy of the said See or otherwise by doing or speaking any thing that might impugn the same Offering our selves and promising by this our Supplication that for a token and acknowledgment of our said repentance we be and shall be always ready to the utmost of our Power to do what lies in us for the abrogating and the repealing of the said Acts and Ordinances in this present Parliament c. Whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesty to set forth this our most humble Suit That we may obtain from the See Apostolick release and discharge from all danger of such Censures and Sentences as by the Laws of the Church we are fallen into and that we may as Children repentant be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church so as this Noble Realm withal the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolick serve God and your Majesty to the furtherance and advancement of his Honor and Glory c. This Petition being granted They further add We being now at the Intercession of your Majesty assoiled discharged and delivered from Excommunication Interdiction and other Censures Ecclesiastical which have hanged over our heads for our said faults since the time of the said Schism mentioned in our Supplication May it therefore now please your Majesty That for the better accomplishment of our promise made in the said Supplication we may Repeal All Laws and Statutes made contrary to the said Supremacy and See Apostolick during the said Schism Thus as to the Repealing of all such Laws made in the Reign of King Henry the 8th Another Act for the Repealing of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edward the Sixth FOrasmuch as by divers and several Acts of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the Sixth as well the Divine Service and good Administration of the Sacraments as divers other matters of Religion which we and our Fore-fathers found in this Church of England to us left by the Authority of the Catholick Church be partly altered and in some part taken from us and in place thereof New Things imagined and set forth by the said Acts such as a few of singularity have of themselves devised Whereof hath ensued amongst us in a very short time numbers of diverse and strange Opinions and diversity of Sects and thereby grown great unquietness and much discord to the great disturbance of the Kingdom And in a very short time like to grow to extreme peril and utter confusion of the same unless some remedy be in that behalf provided Which Thing all True Loving and Obedient Subjects ought to fore-see and to provide against to the utmost of their power c. Be it therefore Enacted c. A third Act for the Repeal of Two several Acts made in the time of King Edward the Sixth touching the Dissolution of the Bishoprick of Durham WHereas there hath been time out of mind of any man to the contrary a See of a Bishop of Durham commonly called The Bishoprick of Durham which hath been one of the most Ancient and worthiest Bishopricks in Dignity and Spiritual Promotion within the Realm of England and the same place always supplied and furnished with a man of great Learning and Virtue which was both to the Honor of God and the encrease of his True Religion and a great Surety to that part of the Realm Nevertheless the said Bishoprick was without any just cause or consideration by Authority of Parliament Dissolved Extinguished and Exterminated And further by the Authority of the said Parliament it was Ordained and Enacted That the said Bishoprick together with all the ordinary Jurisdiction thereunto appertaining should be adjudged clearly dissolved and extinguished and that King Edward the Sixth should from thence-forth have possess and enjoy to him his heirs and successors for ever whatsoever did appertain or belong to the said Bishoprick in as large and ample manner and form as any Bishop thereof had held or possessed or of right ought to have had held or possessed c. Be it therefore Enacted c. Thus far as to these Acts of Parliament CHAP. IV. A Relation of some English Protestants that forsook the Kingdom and of the Factions and Schisms that were amongst them being in other Countries Anno Reg. Mar. 3. Dr. Heylyn pag. 59. MAny English Protestants forsook the Kingdom to the number of Eight Hundred who having put themselves into several Cities partly in Germany and partly amongst the Switzers and their Confederates kept up the Face and Form of an English Church in each of their several Congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arow Zurick and Geneva And in the first the Cities of Emden Strasburgh and Frankfort In Frankfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and Factions At their first coming to the place they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their Right the English to have the use of it one day
thereof Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground That the English had deservedly suffered the greatest Hardships both at home and abroad because they Writ and Spake so irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Lutherans detesting an English Protestant Nothing occurring more in this Queens Reign as to these matters of Religion we will now give an Account of the years when these Changes were made with an Addition of some works of Piety done by Her and in Her time IN the First year of this Queens Reign All Bishops that had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed Also this year on the Twenty seventh of August the Service was sung in Latin in St. Paul's Church The Pope's Authority being likewise by Act of Parliament restored in England and the Mâ—…ss Commanded in all Churches to be used In her Second year the Realm is Absolved and Reconciled to the Church of Rome and First Fruits and Tenths restored to the Clergy In her Third year Eight hundred English Protestants sorsook the Kingdom who fell into great Confusions amongst themselves being in other Countries In her Fourth year Monasteries were be gun to be re-edified In her Fifth year great endeavors were used by Sectaries to raise Sedition by Seditious Books and unlawful Meetings or Conventicles In her Sixth year She built Publick Schools in the University of Oxford Which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful Structure when they were at the best were taken down In place whereof but upon a larger extent of Ground was raised that Goodly and Magnificent Fabrick which we now behold Works of Piety The Queen restored a great part of the Abbey-Lands that were in her Possession In her First year Sir Thomas white then Mayor Erected a College in Oxford called S. John's College He also Erected Schools at Bristow and Reading and gave Two thousand pounds to the City of Bristow to purchase Lands the profits whereof to be employed for the benefit of young Clothiers In her Third year died Sir John Gresham late Mayor of London who Founded a Free-School at Holt in Norfolk and gave to every Ward in London Ten pounds to be distributed to the Poor Also to Maids-Marriages Two hundred pounds Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Erected a goodly Library in Cambridge storing it with many Excellent both Printed and Written Books He also bestowed much upon Building at Durham at Alnewick and at Tunbridge Thus Sir Richard Baker Here you have had a short View of the great Zeal and Piety that was in this Nation during the Reign of this Queen And this delivered from the mouths of her Enemies the most zealous Protestants This Account being here ended we will now proceed to relate what Changes were made as to Religion in Queen Elizabeths time Wherein the Scene was totally Altered She following the Example of her Father and Brother in going on with the Destructions and Confusions begun by them The Last Part Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning A Fourth Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth A Preamble BEfore we begin this Queens Reign we will following Dr. Heylyn's order first make a Relation out of him of the various Fortunes of her Mother Anne Boleign of whom thus he writes in his History of Reformation pag. 86. Anne Boleign from her tender years was brought up in the Court of France Who returning into England was preferred to be Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine In whose Service the King falls in Love with her But so long concealed his Affections that there was a great League contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Peircy Son to the Earl of Northumberland But that being broken off by the endeavors of Cardinal Wolsey and the King laboring for a Divorce from Queen Catherine that he might Marry her that also was sought to be obstructed by the Cardinal Which being understood by Mrs. Anne Boleign she seeks all ways for his destruction and prevailed so far with the King that he was presently Indicted and Attainted of a Praemunire and not long after by the Counsel of Thomas Cromwel who had sormerly been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legatine Court envolves the whole Clergy in the same Crime with him And by perswasion of this man he requires of the said Clergy to acknowledge him for Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and to make no new Canons and Constitutions not to Execute any such when made by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his Command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome concerning his Divorce Whereupon he privately Marries Mistris Anne Boleign And a long time after to wit Three or Four Months after the Birth of the Princess Elizabeth began a Parliament in which the Kings first Marriage was declared Unlawful and the Succession of the Crown settled upon His Issue by this Second Marriage An Oath being devised in maintenance of the said Succession and not long after Moor and Fisher were Executed for refusing to take that Oath The New Queen being thus settled and considering that the Pope and She had such different Interests that they could not subsist together She resolved to suppress his Power what she could But finding that the Pope was too well entrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel to begin with taking in the Outworks first which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches In order whereunto a Visitation is begun in which a diligent Enquiry was to be made into all Abbey's Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdom an Account of which Visitation and the Dâ—…ssolution of Abbeys hath been formerly given in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But the New Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived that Plot did not live to see this Dissolution For such is the uncertainty of Humane Affairs that when she thought her Self most Secure and free from Danger She became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for Her It had pleased God upon the Eighth of January to put an end unto the Calamities of the Virtuous but unfortunate Queen unto whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparelled in lighter Colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition She could not but have known that the long Life of Queen Catherine was to be her best preservation against all changes which the King 's loose Affections or any other Alteration in the Affairs of State were otherwise like to draw upon her But this Contentment held not long For within Three Weeks after She fell in Travail in which she miscarried of a Son to the extreme discontent of the
began to build new Altars and set up the Mass So fared it now with the Zealots among the Protestants who measuring the Queens Affections by their own or else presuming that their Errors would be taken for an honest Zeal employed themselves as busily in the demolishing of Altars and defacing of Images as if they had been Licensed and commanded to it by some Legal Warrant It happened also that some of the Ministers who remained at home and others which returned in great numbers from beyond the Seas had put themselves into the Pulpits and bitterly enveighed against the Superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome The Papists accused the others of Heresies Schisms Innovation in the Worship of God For the Suppressing of which Disorders the Queen Commanded there should be no Disputes concerning Religion and that no Man of what Perswasion soever he was should be suffered to Preach in publick but only such as should be Licensed Which Command and Proclamation was so strictly observed that no Sermon was Preached at St. Paul's Cross or any Publick place in London till the Easter following At which time when the Preacher was to go into the Pulpit the Door was locked and the Key thereof not to be found So that a Smith was sent for to break open the Door and that being done the like necessity was found of cleansing and making sweet the place which by a long disuse had contracted so much filth and nastiness as rendred it unfit for a present Sermon By another Proclamation it was enjoyned That no Man of what quality or degree soever should presume to alter any thing in the State of Religion or innovate in any of the Rites and Ceremonies thereunto belonging But that all such Rites and Ceremonies should be observed in all Parish Churches of the Kingdom as were then used and retained in her Majesties Chappel until some further order should be taken in it Only it was permitted That the Litany should be said in the English Tongue as likewise the Epistle and Gospel at the time of High Mass which was accordingly done in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom Further than this She thought it not convenient to proceed at the present Only She Commanded the Priest or Bishop for some say it was the one and some the other who Officiated at the Altar in the Chappel Royal not to make any Elevation of the Sacrament the better to prevent the Adoration which was given to it which she could not suffer to be done in her sight without a most apparent wrong to her Judgment and Conscience Which being made known in other places and all other Churches being commanded to conform themselves to the Example of her Chappel the Elevation was forborn also in most other places And though there were no further progress made towards a Reformation by any publick Act or Edict yet secretly a Reformation in the Form of Worship and consequently in point of Doctrine was both intended and projected Thus far Dr. Heylyn ' Concerning ' the Policy used in making this Change This Relation is thus otherwise delivered by Sir Rich. Baker pag. 474. QUeen Elizabeth intending an Alteration of Religion would not do it all at once and upon the sudden but by little and little As at first she permitted only the Epistles and Gospels of the Day to be read at Mass in English But in all other matters they were to follow the Roman Rite and Custom until order could be taken for Establishing Religion by Authority of Parliament And a severe Proclamation was set out prohibiting all Disputations of Religion By which means She both put the Protestants in hope and put not Papists out of hope Yet privately She committed the Correcting of the Book of Common-Prayer set forth in the English Tongue under King Edward the Sixth to the care and diligence of Dr. Parker and others But the matter was carried on so closely that it was not communicated to any but the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Bedford and Sir William Cecil Soon after this the use of the Lord's Supper in both kinds was by Parliament allowed And within Two or Three Months the Sacrifice of the Mass was abolished and the Liturgy in the English Tongue Established though as some say but with the difference of Six Voices in the House of Commons The next Month the Oath of Supremacy was offered to the Catholick Bishops and others and the Month following Images were removed out of the Churches broken and burnt By these degrees Religion in England was changed The Supremacy confirmed to the Queen As many of the Bishops as refused to take the Oath were presently deprived of their Bishopricks and Protestant Bishops put in the possession of them Thus Sir Rich. Baker relates this strange manner of changing Religion by degrees A necessary consequence of these Proceedings was a general Confusion in matters of Religion Which is thus set down by Howes upon Stow pag. 635. At this time the English Nation was wonderfully divided in Opinions as well in matters of Ecclesiastical Government as in divers Points of Religion by reason of Three Changes within the compass of Twelve years Every one of these varying from that which was Authorized by Henry the Eighth For King Henry assuming the Ecclesiastical Supremacy with the First Fruits and Tenths maintained Seven Sacraments with Obits and Mass for the Quick and Dead King Edward abolished the Mass Authorized a Book of Common-Prayer in English with Hallowing the Bread and Wine c. and Established only Two Sacraments Queen Mary restored all Things according to the Church of Rome reduced all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Papal Obedience with restitution of First Fruits and Tenths permitting nothing within her Realm and Dominions repugnant to the Roman Catholick Church Queen Elizabeth in Her First Parliament expelled the Papal Supremacy resumed the First Fruits and Tenths Suppressed the Mass and for the general Uniformity of her Dominions Established the Book of Common-Prayer in the English Tongue forbidding all others Thus Stow ' concerning these Prodigious Changes in Religion made by Publick Authority CHAP. III. Of the order of the Establishment of this last Change of Religion by Parliament And of a Speech made in Parliament in Opposition to the Queens Supremacy Dr. Heylyn pag. 107. NOw a Parliament draws on Summoned chiefly in reference to the Reformation which was therein to be established The Queens design in order to it could not be so closely carried but that such Lords and Gentlemen as had the managing of Elections in their several Counties retained such Men for Members of the House of Commons as they conceived most likely to comply with their intentions for a Reformation Amongst whom none appeared more active than the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Arundel and Sir William Cecil In this Parliament there passed an Act for Restoring to the Crown the Tenths and
Obedience at the Font saying Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam that is I believe the Holy Catholick Church Which Article containeth That we must receive the Doctrine and Sacraments of the same Church obey her Laws and live according to the same Which Laws do depend wholly upon the Authority of the See Apostolick And like as it is here openly professed by the Judges of the Realm that the Laws agreed upon in the Higher and Lower Houses of this Honourable Parliament be of small or none effect before the Royal Assent of the King or Prince be given thereunto Even so Ecclesiastical Laws made cannot bind the Universal Church of Christ without the Royal Assent and Confirmation of the See Apostolick Thirdly We must forsake and fly from the Judgment of all other Christian Princes whether they be Protestant or Catholick Christians when none of them do agree with these our doings King Henry the Eighth being the first that ever took upon him the Title of Supremacy And whereas it was of late here in this House said by a Nobleman That the Title of Supremacy is of right due to a King for that he is a King then it would follow That Herod being a King should be Supreme Head of the Church at Jerusalem And Nero the Emperor Supreme Head of the Church of Christ at Rome they being both Infidels and therefore no members of Christ his Church And if our Saviour Christ at his departure from this World should have left the Spiritual Government of his Church in the hands of Emperors and Kings and not to have committed the same to his Apostles how negligently then should he have left his Church It shall appear right well by calling to mind That the Emperor Constantinus Magnus was the First Christian Emperor and was Baptized by Sylvester Bishop of Rome about Three hundred years after the Ascension of Christ Jesus If by your Proposition Constantine the first Christian Emperor was the First Head and Spiritual Governor of Christ his Church throughout his Empire then it followeth That our Saviour Christ for the space of Three Hundred years unto the coming of this Constantine left his Church which he had so dearly bought by effusion of his most precious Blood without any Head at all But how untrue the saying of this Nobleman was it shall further appear by Example of Ozia and also of King David For King Ozia did take the Censor to do Incense to the Altar of God The Priest Azarias did resist him and expelled him out of the Temple and said unto him Non est Officii tui Ozia ut adoleas Incensum Domino sed est Sacerdotum Filiorum Aaron Ad hujusmodi enim Officium consecrati That is to say It is not thy Office Ozia to offer Incense to the Altar of God But it is the Priests Office and the Sons of Aaron for they are Consecrated and Anointed to that Office Now I shall most humbly demand this question When the Priest Azarias said to the King Non est Officii tui whether he said Truth or not If you answer that he spake the Truth then the King was not Supreme Head of the Church of the Jews If you shall say No Why did God plague the King with Leprosie and not the Priest The Priest Azarias in resisting the King and thrusting him out of the Temple in so doing did the Priest play the faithful part of a Subject or no If you answer No why then did God spare the Priest and not spare the King If you answer Yea then it is most manifest Ozia in that he was a King could not be Supreme Head of the Church And as touching the Example of King David in bringing home the Ark of God from the Country of the Philistians to the City of David what Supremacy or Government of God's Ark did King David there take upon him Did he place himself amongst the Priests Or take upon him any Spiritual Function unto them appertaining Did he approach neer unto the Ark Or yet presume to touch the same No doubtless For he had seen before Ozia strucken to death by the hand of God for the like arrogance and presumption And therefore King David did go before the Ark of God with his Harp making Melody and placed himself amongst the Minstrels and humbly did abase himself being a King as to dance and leap before the Ark of God like as his other Subjects did Insomuch as his Queen Michol King Saul's Daughter beholding and seeing this great Humility of King David did disdain thereat Whereunto King David making answer said Ludam vilior fiam plùs quà m factus sum c. That is I will dance and abase my self more than yet I have done and abjecting my self in mine own eyes I shall appear more glorious with those Handmaids that you talk of I will play here before my Lord which hath chosen me rather than thy Father's House And whereas Queen Michol was therefore plagued at God's hand with perpetual Sterility and Barrenness King David received great praise for his Humility Now may it please your Honours to consider which of both these Kings Examples shall be most convenient for your Wisdoms to make the Queens Majesty to follow whether the Example of Proud Ozia moving Her by your perswasions and Councils to take upon her Spiritual Government and thereby exposing her Soul to be plagued at the hand of God as King Ozia was or else to follow the Example of the good King David which in refusal of all Spiritual Government about the Ark of God did humble himself as I have declared unto you Whereunto our Sovereign Lady the Queens Highness of Her own nature being well inclined we may assure our selves to have of Her as Humble as Virtuous and as Godly a Mistress to Reign over us as ever had English People here in this Realm if that her Highness be not by your Flattery and Dissimulation seduced and beguiled Fourthly and Lastly We must forsake and fly from the Holy Unity of Christ's-Church Seeing that St. Cyprian that Holy Martyr and great Clerk doth say that the Unity of the Church of Christ doth depend upon Peter's Authority and his Successors Therefore by leaping out of Peter's Ship we must be overwhelmed with the Waves of Schisms of Sects and Divisions Because the same Holy Martyr in his Third Epistle to Cornelius testifieth That all Heresies Sects and Schisms do spring only from hence that Men will not be obedient to the Head-Bishop of God And how true this saying of St. Cyprian is we may see it most apparent to all Men that list to see both by the Example of the Germans and by us the Inhabitants of this Realm of England And by this our forsaking and flying from the Unity of the Church of Rome this inconveniency amongst many must consequently follow That either we must grant the Church of Rome to be the True Church of God or else a malignant Church If you
stretching forth her body her head aâ—… two blows was taken off This end had Mary Queen of Scots in the Forty Sixth year of her Age and of her Imprisonment in England the Eighteenth A Lady so compleat in all excellent parts of Body and mind that it must needs have made her a happy Woman if she had not been a Queen and perhaps a happy Queen too if she had not been Heir to the Crown of England Thus Baker I will insert here one Passage more concerning this Queen which hath been omited in order of this story Dr. Heylyn pag. 160. Certain of the Queens Servants being assembled for their Devotions in the Chappel Royal of the Palace of Holy-rood House in Edenburgh the doors were broken open some of the company haled to the next Prison and the rest dispersed The Priest escaping with much difficulty by a private passage The Queen was then absent in the North but questioned Knox at her return as the cause of the uproar By which Expostulation she got nothing from that fiery Spirit but neglect and scorn Thus Dr. Heylyn ' concerning this ' barbarous action CHAP. VIII A short Relation concerning the Affairs of Ireland as to Religion And how the Hugonots in France betrayed the English Dr. Heylyn pag. 128. WE shall find the Queen there as active in advancing the Reformation as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the Ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes Authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters of Doctrine and Forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither much endeavoured in the time of King Edward the Sixth It being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the King's Minority considering with how many troubles he was else here exercised If any thing were done thereâ—…n it was rather done by toleration than command But Queen Elizabeth having setled her Affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of Piety to promote the Reformation in that Kingdom likewise A Parliament is therefore held where pass'd an Act restoring to the Crown the Jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also pass'd an Act for the Uniforâ—…ity of Common-Prayer with permission of saying the same in Latin where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as it was afterwards done into Welch there was no care taken The people are required by that Statute under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Irish were not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have likewise furnished the Papist with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also pass'd another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first Fruits and Twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions as also of all Impropriated Parsonages of which there are more in number than those Rectories which have Cure of Souls The like Act passed for the Restitution of all Lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem with the Annulling of all Leases and other Grants made by the late Lord Prior of the same The Bishops of Ireland finding how things went in England and knowing that the like Alteration would ensue amongst themselves resolved to make such use of the present times as to enrich their Friends and Kindred by the the spoyl of their Churches To which end they so dissipated the Revenues of their several Bishopricks by long Leases Fee-farms and plain Alienations that to some of their Sees they left no more than a Rent of Five Marks Per Annum To others a bare yearly Rent of Forty shillings to the high displeasure of God the reproach of Religion and the perpetual ignominy of themselves for that horrible Sacriledge Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Ireland How the English were betrayed by the Hugonots Dr. Heylyn pag. 161. A Peace being concluded betwixt the King and the Hugonots they betrayed the English whom they had brought into the Country and joyned their Forces with the rest to drive them out of Newhaven a Town besieged where the Pestilence had gotten amongst them and raged so terribly that the Living were scarce able to bury the Dead And to compleat the misery of the Besieged the Prince of Conde and Duke of Monpensier who had been the Heads of the Hugonot party shewed themselves openly amongst the rest in the Camp of the Enemies whereupon they were necessitated to yield This might be looked upon as an Argument of God's displeasure on this Nation for giving Aid unto the Rebels of a Christian Prince masked with the vizard of Religion And for a further punishment of this Action the Plague brought out of France by the Garrison Soldiers of Newhaven had so dispersed it â—…elf and made such a desolation in many parts of the Realm that it swept away above Twenty Thousand in the City of London Thus Dr. Heylyn And thus far as to these particul Relations of other Countries We will now prosecute our story of England CHAP. IX A Word concerning the then Pope's Letter to the Queen with a long Relation concerning the Presbyterians Dr. Heylyn pag. 131. WE find the new Bishops in England very high and resolute in opposing the Church of Rome Whereof the then Pope being informed directs unto the Queen an affectionate Letter calling Her his Dearest Daughter and declaring unto Her how sollicitous he was for her Salvation and the prosperity of her People which he told Her was not to be found by wandring out of the Communion of the Catholick Church Unto which he again invites Her with much Christian meekness But the Queen had set up her Resolution to go forward with the Change Wherefore all was lost labour But all this while there was no care taken to suppress the practices of the Calvinists who secretly endeavored to subvert the English Liturgy For whilst the Prelates of the Church of England bent all their forces towards the confuting of the Papists another Enemy appeared which seemed not openly to aim at the Churches Doctrine but quarrelled rather at some Rites and Extrinsecals of it Their purpose was to take in the Outworks of Religion first before they levelled their Artillery at the Fort it self The Schismaticks of Frankfort had no sooner heard of Queen Maries Death but they make what hast they could for England in hope of fishing better for themselves in a troubled water than a quiet Followed not long after by the Brethren of the Separation which
vacant There was one Scambler made Bishop of Peterborough But during the vacancy thereof Sir William Cecill possessed himself of the Mannors in Soak which belonged unto it And for Scambler's readiness to confirm the same Mannors to him he preferred him to the See of Norwich Dr Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids was translated to the See of York which was done in an unlucky hour to that City For scarce was he setled in that See when he pulled down the Goodly Hall and the greatest part of the Episcopal Palace in the City of York which had been built with so much care and cost by one of his Predecessors in the year 1090 Whether it were for Covetousness to make Money of the Materials of it or out of sordidness to avoid the charge of Hospitality let them guess that will But neither the filling up of those vacant Sees nor the Queens Proclamation for the Banishing of Sectaries could free the Land from those dangerous Inmates or preserve the Church from the Contagion of their poysonous Doctrines A short Note concerning St. Paul's Church Dr. Heylyn in the same page The Zuinglian Gospellers or those of the Genevian party rejoyced much at a most lamentable accident which hapned to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on the Fourth of June on which day a fearful Fire first shewed it self near the top of the Steeple and from thence burnt down the Spire to the Stone-work and Bells and raged so terribly that within the space of Four hours the Timber and Lead of the whole Church and whatsoever else was combustible in it were burnt and consumed Now when Men began to cast about to find out what might be the occasion of this misfortune The generality of the Zuinglian or Genevian party affirmed it to be a just Judgment of God upon an old Idolatrous Fabrick not throughly Reformed and purged from its Superstitions and would have been content that all other Cathedrals in the Kingdom had been so destroyed The Emperors Zeal Dr. Heylyn pag. 142. The Emperor Ferdinand being informed of these Confusions of Religion in England perswaded the Queen by his Letters to return to the old Religion and not relinquish the Communion of so many Catholick Kings and Princes and Her own Ancestors also nor to prefer Her singular judgment and the judgment of a few private Persons and those not of the most Learned neither before the Judgment and Determination of the Church of Christ. And that if She were resolved to persist in her own Opinion at least that She would deal favourably with so many Reverend and Religious Prelates as She kept in Prison and that meerly for adhering unto that Religion which himself professed And finally he entreas her most earnestly That she would set apart some Churches to the use of the Catholicks where they might freely exercise their Religion A Nuncio sent to the Queen Dr. Heylyn in the same page Pope Pius also sent his Nuncio to the Queen with whom he conceived himself to stand upon terms of Amity It had been much laboured by the Guises and Spanish-faction to divert him from it by telling him That it would be an undervaluing of his Power and Person to send a Nuncio into England or to any other Princes of the same Perswasions who openly professed a Separation from the Church of Rome To which he made this prudent and pious answer That he would humble himself even to Heresie it self in regard whatsoever was done to gain Souls to Christ did beseem that See Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XI Of the Contest between the Church of England and the Presbyterians and how they sought to undermine the said Church Dr. Heylyn pag. 144. THe Genevians slept not all this while but were busily employed in practising against the Church of England nothing being able to satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Frankfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Altar stood and brought the Table into the midst of the Church In others they laid aside the Ancient use of God-fathers and God-mothers in the Administration of Baptism and left the answering for the Child to the charge of the Father the Weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other Days of Abstinence were look'd upon as Superstitious observations No Fast by them allowed of but occasionally only and them too of their own appointing And the like course they took also with Festival Days neglecting those which had been instituted as Human Inventions not fit to be retained in a Reformed Church And finally that they might bring in their Outlandish Doctrines with such Foreign usages they had procured some of the inferior Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new Books of Sermons and Expositions of the Holy Scripture To stop these proceedings the Arch-Bishop with Advice of some of the Bishops set forth a Book of Orders But notwithstanding these Orders the Calvinists drive on their designs as appears by this following Relation of Dr. Heylyn pag. 154. The Genevians had already begun to blow the Coals and brought Fuel to them But it was only for the Burning of Caps and Rochets The Common-Prayer-Book was so fortified by Act of Parliament that there was no assaulting of it And as to Episcopal Government it was so interwoven and incorporated with the Laws of the Land so twisted in with the Prerogative of the Crown and the Royal Interest that they must first be in a capacity of trampling on the Laws and the Crown together before they could attempt the destruction of it But Caps and Tippets Rochets and Lawn-sleeves and Canonical Coats seemed to be built upon no better Foundation than Superstitious custom some old Popish Canon or at the best some Temporary Injunction of the Queens devising which could not have the Power and effect of Law This Game they had in chase in King Edwards time which now they are resolved to follow to the very last The obstinacy of these Men in matter of Ceremony prompted the Bishops to make tryal of their Orthodoxy in Points of Doctrine Whereupon the Articles of Religion lately agreed upon were required to be subscribed to in all places with threatning no less than Deprivation to such as willfully refused Many there were that boggled at it as they all did but yet not so perversly nor in such great numbers as when their faction was grown strong and improved to multitudes Some stumbled at it in regard of the first clause added to the Twentieth Article about the Authority of the Church Others in reference to the Thirty Sixth touching the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops Some thought they Attributed more Authority to the Supream Magistrate over all Persons and Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil than could consist with that Independency which Calvin arrogated unto his Presbyters and other Churches of the
Or that the Communion Table if any then were was removable up and down hither and thither and brought at any time to the lower part of the Church there to Celebrate the Lord's Supper Or That any Communion was kept upon Good-Friday Or That the Sacrament was administred then sometimes in Loaf-Bread sometimes in Wafers And that without the Name of Jesus or the sign of the Cross Or That at the Communion-time the Minister should wear a Coap and at all other Service a Surplice only Or as it is used in some places nothing at all beside his Common Apparel Or That they used a Common and Prophane Cup at the Communion pag. 162 Or That a solemn Curse should be used on Ashwednesday Or That a Procession about the Fields was used in Rogation week rather thereby to know the Bounds and Borders of every Parish than to move God to Mercy and mens hearts to Devotion Or That the Man should put the Wedding-Ring upon the Fourth Finger of the left hand of the Woman and not on the right as hath been many Hundred years practised pag. 163 Or That the residue of the Sacrament unreceived was taken of the Priest or of the Parish Clerk to spread their young Childrens Butter with or to serve their own Tooth with it at their homely Table Or That it was lawful then to have but one Communion in one Church in one day pag. 164 Or That the Lent or Friday was to be Fasted for Civil Policy not for any Devotion pag. 165 Or That the Lay-People Communicating did take the Cup at one anothers hands and not at the Priests pag. 166. Or That any Bishop then threw down the Images of Christ and his Saints and set up their own their Wives and their Childrens Pictures in their Chambers and Parlours pag. 164. Or That being a Virgin at the taking of the Holy Order of Priesthood did afterwards lawfully Marry pag. 165. Or That was Married on Ashwednesday Or That preached it to be all one to Pray on a Dunghil and in a Church Or That any Friar of 60 years obtaining afterwards the Dignity of a Bishop Married a young Woman of Nineteen years c. pag. 166. Here ends Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Now to compleat the story of the Presbyterians I will here add what is related by Dr. Heylyn concerning their actings in this Queens Reign in his History of Presbytery AN ADDITION Of some other Historical Collections Taken out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Presbytery CHAP. XV. A Discovery of the Insolent and Rebellious Spirit of the Presbyterians and particularly of Knox. Dr. Heylyn pag. 244. AT Queen Elizabeths first coming to the Crown such English as had lived in exile amongst the Zwitzers or at Geneva became exceedingly enamored with Calvin's Platform by which they found so much Authority ascribed unto Ministers in their several Churches as might make them absolute and independent without being called to an account by King or Bishop This Discipline they purposed to promote at their coming home But the Queen had heard so much from others of their carriage at Frankfort and their untractableness in point of Decency and comly Order in the Reign of her Brother as might sufficiently forewarn her Besides She was not to be told with what reproaches Calvin had reviled her Sister nor how she had been persecuted by his followers in the time of her Reign Some of them railing at her Person in their scandalous Pamphlets Some practising by false and dangerous Allusions to subvert her Government and others openly praying to God That he would either turn Her heart or put an end to her days And of these Men she was to give her self no hope but they would proceed with her in the self same manner whensoever any thing should be done how necessary and just soever which might cross their humours The Consideration whereof was of such prevalency with those of her Council who were then deliberating about the altering of Religion that they were resolved to have an eye upon those Men Who were so hot in the persuit of their flattering hopes that out of a desire of Innovation as my Author tells me they were busied at that very time in setting up a new form of Ecclestastical Policy and therefore were to be supprest with all care and diligence before they grew to a head But notwithstanding this discovery of their Rebellious practices yet they had so many Friends in England that they might easily have obtained Favour in order to the Promoting their designs had not Knox's furious Spirit moved him to write these following malicious Letters In one of which to Sir William Cecill he first upbraids him with consenting to the suppressing of Christ's true Evangile to the erecting of Idolatry and the Shedding the Blood of God's most dear Children during the Reign of mischievous Mary the professed enemy of God as he plainly calls her Then he proceeds to justifie his Treasonable and Seditious Book against the Regiment of Women of the truth whereof he positively affirms That he no more doubted than of the truth of that Voice of God pronounced against that Sex to wit That in dolour they should bear their Children Next he declared in reference to the person of Queen Elizabeth That he would willingly acknowledge her to be raised by God for the manifestation of his Glory although not nature only but Gods own Ordinance did oppugn such Regiments And thereupon did inferr That if Queen Elizabeth would confess that the Extraordinary Dispensations of God did make that Lawful in her which both Nature and Gods Laws did deny in all Women beside none in England should bemore ready to maintain her Lawful Authority than himself But on the other side he pronounces this Sentence on her That if she built her Title upon Custom Laws and Ordinances of Men such foolish Presumption would grievously offend God and that her ingratitude in that kind should not long lack punishment To the same purpose he writes also to the Queen her self reproaching her withal That for fear of her life she had declined from God Bowed to Idolatry and gone to Mass during the persecution of Gods Saints in the time of her Sister In both his Letters he complains of his being denied the liberty of Preaching in England and endeavours to excuse his Flock of late assembled in the most Godly Reformed Church and City of Geneva Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XVI A further Discovery of their Practices in order to the Promoting of their Discipline which was much Advanced by their being admitted into the Publick Ministry Dr. Heylyn pag. 246. SUch was the necessity which the Church of England was under that it was hardly possible to supply all the vacant places in it but by admitting some of the Genevian Zealots to the Publick Ministry the Realm had been extreamly visited in the foregoing year with a dangerous and contagious Sickness which took away almost half of the Bishops and occasioned such a
Mortality amongst the rest of the Clergy that a great part of the Parochial Churches were without Incumbents The rest of the Bishops Twelve Deans and as many Archdeacons Fifteen Masters of Colleges and Halls Fifty Prebendaries of Cathedral Churches and about Fourscore Beneficed Men were deprived at once for refusing to submit to the Queens Supremacy For the filling of which vacant places it cannot be imagined but many past amongst the rest who either had not hitherto discovered their dissatisfaction or were connived at in regard of their Parts and Learning Wherefore there is no question to be made but that some numbers of them were admitted unto Country-Cures by means whereof they had as great an opportunity as they could wish or desire not only to Dispute their Genevian Doctrines but likewise to prepare the People committed to them for receiving such Innovations both in Worship and Government as were resolved in time convenient to be put upon them For a Preparative whereunto they brought along with them the Genevian Bible with their Notes upon it together with David's Psalms in English Meeter that by the one they might effect an Innovation in points of Doctrine and by the other bring this Church more near to the Rules of Geneva in some chief Acts of Publick Worship The Notes upon the same Bible in many places savour of Sedition and in some of Faction destructive of the Persons and Power of Kings and of all Civil Intercourse and Human Society There is a Note on 2 Chron. 8. 15 16. where Asa is taxed by them for not putting his Mother to death but deposing her only from the Regency which before She executed Of which Note the Scottish Presbyterians made especial use not only in deposing Mary their lawful Queen but prosecuting her openly and underhand till they had taken away her life Now with this Bible and these Notes which proved so advantageous to them in their main projectments they also brought in David's Psalms in English Meeter of which they served themselves to some Tune in the time succeeding For they came to be esteemed the most Divine part of God's Publick Worship the Reading Psalms together with the First and Second Lessons being heard in many places with a covered head but all Men sitting Bareheaded when the Psalm is Sung And to that end the Parish-clark must be taught to call upon the people to Sing it To the Praise and Glory of God no such preparatory Exhortation being used at the naming of the Chapter or the Daily Psalms By these Preparatives they hoped in time to bring in the whole Body of Calvinism as well in reference to Government and Forms of Worship as in Points of Doctrine In all this time they could obtain no Countenance from this State though it was once endeavoured for them by the Earl of Leicester whom they had gained to their Party But it was only to make use of them for Politick Ends. Finding this opposition they not only repined and grudged at the Reformation which was made in this Church because not fitted to their Fancies and to Calvin's Platform but have laboured to sow those Seeds of Heterodoxy and Disobedience which afterwards brought forth those Troubles and Disorders which ensued upon it Thus Dr. Heylyn These Islands the only remainder of the Crown of England in the Dukedom of Normandy had admitted the Reformation in the Reign of King Edward by whose command the Publick Liturgy had been turned into French But the Reformed Religion being suppressed in the time of Queen Mary was revived again immediately after her decease by such French Ministers as had resorted thither for Protection in the days of their troubles These French Ministers desiring to have all things Modelled by the Rules of Calvin endeavored by all the friends they could make to advance his Discipline to which they were encouraged by their Brethren here and the Governors there The Governors in each Island advanced the Plot out of a covetous intent to enrich themselves with the spoils of the Deaneries the Brethren here having by this means a hope to gain ground by little and little for the Erecting of the same in most parts of England And in pursuance of this project both Islands joyn in a Confederacy to Petition the Queen for an Allowance of this Discipline Anno 1563. In the year next following some French were delegated to the Court to sollicite it where they received a Gracious Answer and returned full of hopes In the mean time the Queen being strongly perswaded that this design would much advance the Reformation in those Islands was contented to give way unto it in the Towns of St. Peter's Port and St. Hilaries only in Jersey and in the Port of St. Peters in Gernsey but no further Other parts of the Islands being to be Conform to the Church of England Now although there be no express mention in their Grant of Allowing their Discipline but only of their Form of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments yet they presumed so far on the general words as to put it presently in practice intending to advance it by degrees in all the rest of the Parishes as opportunity should serve and the condition of Affairs permit Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Islands CHAP. XVII A further Account of their labouring to Undermine the Church of England Dr. Heylyn pag. 252. IN England they found not such success as they did abroad not a few of them being deprived of their Benefices and other preferments in the Church for their Inconformity The news of which severity flies to France and Scotland occasioning Beza in the one and Knox and his Comrades in the other to interpose themselves in behalf of their Brethren With what Authority Beza acted in it we shall see anon In Knox his Letter sent from the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland the Church-Vestments are called Trifles and Rags of Rome With more Authority writes Beza as the greater Patriarch and he writes too concerning things of greater consequence than Caps and Surplices For in a Letter of his to Grindal he makes a sad complaint of suspending these Men from the Ministry for not subscribing to some new Rites and Ceremonies imposed upon them But he seems more offended That Women were suffered to Baptize in extream necessity That Power was granted to the Queen for Ordaining such other Rites and Ceremonies as should seem convenient and that the Bishops had so much Authority He excepts likewise against many other such things The Copies of these Letters were presently dispersed if not also Printed Some of the Brethren in their Zeal to the name of Calvin preferred him once before St. Paul and Beza without doubt would have taken it ill if he had been esteem'd of less Authority than any of the Successors of St. Peter So good a Foundation being laid the Building could not chuse but go on apace But first they must prepare the Matter and remove all doubts which otherwise might
the preservation of my Life than the profit of my Living Wherefore after I had weighed as many dangers as I could remember and was perswaded that to depart the Realm was the safest way I could take I resolved to take the benefit of a happy Wind to avoid the violence of a bitter Storm And knowing that the Actions of Those who go beyond Seas though their intent be never so good and dutiful were yet evil thought of I presume to write this Letter to your Majesty and in it to declare the true causes and reasons of this my departure I here take God and his Holy Angels to witness that I would not have taken this course if I might have staied still in England without danger of my Soul and peril of my Life And though the loss of Temporal Commodities be so grievous to Flesh and Blood that I could not desire to live if I were not comforted with the remembrance of his Mercy for whom I endure all this who endured ten thousand times more for me yet I assure your Majesty that your Displeasure would be more unpleasant to me than the bitterness of all my Losses and greater grief than the greatest of my Misfortunes The Earl having written the foregoing Letter and leaving it behind him to be delivered to the Queen after his departure attempted to have passed the Seas without License for the which he was committed to the Tower and condemned to pay Ten thousand Pound Fine for his contempt and to remain Prisoner at the Queens pleasure Thus Stow. This short Relation of these Severities may make it easily conceived what endeavours there were then used totally to extirpate Catholick Religion in England Thus you have had a short view of the state of Religion in this Queens Reign An Account of the Years in which these Changes in Religion were made IN her First year she being resolved upon an Alteration of Religion as knowing well that her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stard together called a Parliament which totally complied with her Designs in order to such a Change But the Convocation of the Clergy which accompanied this Parliament totally opposed it and thereupon were deprived of their Ecclesiastical Benefices a company of Ignorant and Illiterate Men being Substituted in their places which gave occasion to the Calvinists or Presbyterians to obtain great Ecclesiastical Preserments here By which they have continually labored to supplant and undermine the Church of England It was the Second year of her Reign before any Protestant Bishops were elected The main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees so long vacant was that in the mean time the best Flowers might be culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them upon which they find great oppositions from the Presbyterians In her Fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refused to do The Emperor also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Ancient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her Fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her Sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her Seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her Eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirmed And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London who being called up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refused to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted upon because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declared by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgy confirmed in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the received Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church-Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreased that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffered the penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan party laboured to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists derived from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and his Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work Wherein I hope there is full Satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens with a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends the Historical Collections AN APPENDIX CHAP. I. A Word concerning the Doctrins and Practices deserted by this Nation in these Changes of Religion NOw for a close to this Work I will add here in the first place one thing which I conceive deserves well to be taken notice of which is this to wit
very Gall of Schism by usurping an Authority which express Scripture says belongs only to Pastors I fear much fewer than is ordinarily imagined of those who have any liberal Education will be excused from this sin by any Ignorance Surreptition Provocation c. by reason of that great evidence and light which they have of the continued Succession Unity of Doctrin perfect Obedience to their spiritual Superiors Pennances and Retirements from the World and several other signal marks of the One Holy Catholick and Apostclick Church Some may be more deeply guilty and obnoxious to a heavier damnation than others as Ring-leaders more than their Followers But Damnation is by the Fathers generally denounced as the portion of them all Thus of the sin of Schism CHAP. VI. Of the Schism of the Church of England NOw whereas some Protestants seek to vindicate the Church of England from Schism by likening it to the Church of St. Cyprian of whom it is said That it condemned no man nor separated none from its Communion yet you are to know that this Plea helps them not at all For although this Moderation did exempt St. Cyprian from Schism because as St. Augustin says The Church had not then decided the dispute to whose decision St. Cyprian would certainly have submitted Yet this Moderation does not at all exempt the Church of England from Schism because her separation from her Mother-Church is for very many Doctrins of Faith defined and determined by the same Church This following Example will make the Case of the Church of England evidently appear For if for Example a Province in England had with-drawn it self from the Publick Civil Authority this Excuse would not exempt them from being Rebels to say We do not intend to quarrel with Those that continue in Obedience to the King we mean neither him nor them any harm They shall be welcome to come among us if they will we will be good friends we will not meddle with their doings but we will be governed only by our own Laws and Magistrates c. I believe I say This would not take from them the Guilt of Rebellion Their Civility in such their Rebellion would not change the Title of their crime nor free them from the punishment due unto it It may perhaps qualifie the Prince's resentment but the civilest Treason is Treason In this Point of Schism to the end that Doctor Peirce in his Court-Sermon may clear Protestants and lay the weight of so great a crime on the Catholick Church he argues thus Since besides the corruptions in Practice which yet alone cannot justifie separation there were in the Roman Church so many corruptions in Doctrin likewise entrenching on Fundamentals the Schism could not be on the Church of England's side which was obliged to separate so just cause being given but on theirs who gave the cause of the separation This Plea of the Doctors if it be admitted totally destroys all Governments and lays all the Guilt of Schisms and Rebellions in Church and State upon Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors For if Subjects may accuse their Governors and be themselves Judges of the Justice of such their Accusations the Governors are always sure to be condemned and pronounced guilty and the Subject justified Now to admit this Liberty of the Subject in Church-Government above all others is the most unjust Thing imaginable because that Government is protected from all error in Doctrins of Faith by the assistance of the Holy Ghost who was sent by our Saviour to teach it all Truth Wherefore to tax that Government with Errors in Faith is either to tax the Holy Ghost with them or to blaspheme against our Saviour by saying he has not kept his word in sending the Holy Ghost to teach the Church All truth Besides There is this other consideration which doth further manifest the weakness of this the Doctor 's Plea For if the Church of Rome be our Mother-Church as King James acknowledged her to be in a publick Speech made to his Parliament wherein he says I acknowledge the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church See Stow pag. 840. then it will follow as it was urg'd in Parliament by Doctor Heath Archbishop of York in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth That if now after so many Ages this Church of Rome be found an Erroneous Church then we have hitherto received no benefit by our Christianity but rather have been all along deceived Since if this Mother-Church be false the Doctrin which she taught us must necessarily be false A Church being said to be false because she teacheth false Doctrin Thus the Doctor may see what he has gotten by his Reformation There is one thing yet that deserves well to be taken notice of in this change of Religion here in England For if all the Clergy and the Universities had generally assented to this Change it might have seemed a lesser crime But to have this done as de facto it was done in Queen Elizabeths Reign by Laymen only and this only with the Difference of Six Voices in Parliament although that Parliament was pack'd for this purpose and in opposition to the contrary Protestations and Declarations of all the Clergy and Universities This does heighten this crime to the utmost of all Impiety I will yet for a close add one thing more which does not a little manifest this Impiety For although Reformation of Religion was here pretended yet it evidently appears by our English History that nothing but worldly and carnal Interests carried on this business For was not the Liberty obtained by King Henry the Eighth to bring into his Bed a new handsom Wife instead of his former vertuous Queen a very carnal Interest Was not his invading all the Possessions and Treasure of Monasteries a great Secular Interest Was not the dividing the said Lands amongst the Nobility and Gentry at very easie rates a very great Interest In King Edward's days was not the Protector 's seizing on the remainder of Churchspoyls a great Interest Was not the freeing of Clergy-men from a necessity of saying daily and almost hourly long Ecclesiastical Offices from lying alone without Bedfellows c. matters of great both carnal and secular Interest Was not the exempting of All both Layity and Ecclesiasticks from the Duty of confessing their Sins and submitting themselves to Penitential Satisfactions from rigorous Fasts out of Conscience and Religion and other Austerities a matter of considerable Interest to Flesh and corrupt Nature By what hath been hitherto said appears but even too clearly how that the Fundamental Rule of all Government and Subordination was utterly neglected in England at the time that the pretended Reformation was contrived and executed Here is a new and thorough moulding of a Church both in Doctrins and Discipline called a Reformation Wherein all the Synodical Acts of this Church since Christianity entred among us are as to any obliging Power by their Authority reversed wherein all the Decisions of
Creed lib. 2. cap. 4. pag. 165. Sundry saith he in profession Protestants in eagerness of opposition to the Papists affirm That the Church or Spiritual Pastors must then only be believed then only obeyed when they give Sentence according to the evident and express Law of God made evident to the Heart and Consciences of such as must believe and obey them And this in one word is to take away all Authority of Spiritual Pastors and to deprive them of all Obedience Unto whom doubtless God by his Word hath given some special Authority and Right to exact some peculiar obedience of their Flock Now if the Pastor be then only to be obeyed when he brings evident commission out of Scripture for those particulars unto which he demands Belief or Obedience what obedience do men perform to him more than to any other man whatsoever For whosoever he be that can shew us the express undoubted Command of God it must be obeyed of all But whilst it is thus obeyed it only not he that sheweth it unto us is obeyed And if this were all the Obedience that I owe unto others I were no more bound to believe or obey any other man than he is bound to obey or believe me The Flock no more bound to obey the Pastors than the Pastors the Flock Yet certainly God who hath set Kingdoms in Order is not the Author of such confusion in the Spiritual Regiment of his Church Thus Doctor Jackson tying All to Obedience or Submission to the judgment of their Spiritual Superiors See lastly Doctor Ferne. pag. 48. The Church of Christ saith he is a Society or Company under a Regiment Discipline and Government and the Members constituting that Society are either Persons Taught Guided and Governed or Persons Teaching Guiding Governing And this in order to preserve all in Unity and to advance every Member of this visible Society to an effectual and real participation of Grace and Union with Christ the Head And therefore upon no less account is Obedience due unto them Ephes. 4. 11 12 13 16. and Heb. 13. 17. And he that will not hear the Church is to be as an Heathen and Publican Matth. 18. 17. Thus Doctor Ferne. Now in Confirmation of what has been here said by these Protestants concerning Obedience to Church-Authority See St. Augustin in his Book De utilitate credendi of the benefit of believing the Church written to his Friend Honoratus led away by many extravagant Manichaean Dotages advising him Submission of judgment to Church-Authority There is nothing saith he more easie than not only to say but also to think or conceive that we have found out the Truth but in reality it is very difficult Aug. de utilitat credendi Cap. 10. And Chap. 12. who is there but even of a mean capacity that does not plainly see it to be more secure for all such as are not profoundly knowing in Divine matters to obey the Precepts of the wise than to rely upon their own judgments For if this be convenient to be observed in lesser matters as in Merchandizing Tilling of Ground c. certainly much more in concerns of Religion For human Affairs are far more easily understood than the Divine Things of Faith Which being more sacred and sublime as they ought to be more reverenced and esteemed by us so the danger and offence is greater if we fail in the true notion of them And Chap. 17. he argues thus If every Discipline although never so mean and easie to be understood requires a Master or Teacher what can be a more temerarious Pride than not to learn the Books of the Divine Sacraments or Mysteries from the Interpreters of them And Chap. 7. No man that is not a Poet presumes to read Terence without a Master And will you venture upon the reading of those Books which by the Confession of almost all man-kind are accounted Holy and full of Divine Mysteries and presume to give a judgment of the sense of them without a Master And Chap. 16. he thus goes on Since it is so difficult a thing to come to the knowledge of God by Reason Do you think that all men are capable of comprehending the reasons which are produced to guide mens minds to this Divine Knowledge Thus he to induce his Friend Honoratus in such Divine matters to yield the guidance of himself to Church-Authority And then the Church Authority he would have him Submit to he describes thus Chap. 17. Which Church saith he hath obtained Supream Authority from the Apostolick See by a Succession of Bishops Hereticks in vain barking against it Who were lastly condemned partly by the judgment of the People partly by the Gravity or Authority of Councils and partly also by the Majesty or Greatness of Miracles Now not to submit to this Authority were the height of Impiety or a precipitant arrogancy For if there be no other way of obtaining Wisdom and Salvation but by Faith preparing and disposing Reason what could more manifest our Ingratitude unto God for his Divine aid and assistance than to make it our endeavours to resist the forementioned Authority Lastly he concludes with him thus Chap. II. If now you have been sufficiently toss'd and wearied out with variety of Disputes and desire to put an end to them follow the Direction of the Catholick Church or the way of Catholick Discipline which his derived from Christ himself to us by his Apostles and is to continue in the same Channel of Succession unto the End of the World Thus St. Augustin concerning the Security of adhering to Church-Authority Now because in the precedent Historical Collections there is so often mention made of the great contests that hapned concerning the Sacrament of our Lord's Supper I will endeavour to give some satisfaction and to settle mens minds in the true notion of this Doctrin of Faith CHAP. VIII What Ways the Church has made use of to settle mens minds in the Doctrin of the Sacrament of the Eucharist or our Lord's Last Supper TO make this appear more fully I will give you a brief Relation of the past proceedings of the Church in the Decision of the Disputes concerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and the Substantial Conversion of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This Real presence and Substantial Conversion Berengarius and some Followers of his long ago denyed Who being complained of Two Councils were called one after another at Rome and Verseilis Anno Domini 1050. Berengarius Summoned and he not appearing his Heterodox Opinions were condemned He according to the now Protestant Grounds thinking his a Doctrin of great consequence and the Decrees of the Two Councils a manifest Error and that himself had manifest Scripture and Demonstration against it judged himself freed from the obedience of silence or noncontradiction of these Councils And so he and his Followers publickly justified his Tenent desiring a reversing by some new
great Zeal to Gods glory so cheerfully given and bestowed on the structure endowment and adorning of this sometimes famous Monastery and that with such heavy Imprecations and Curses upon any that should take away or diminish ought thereof as the Charters before cited do manifest Against which Violators of the Church its Patrimony the Representative body of this Realm had also so often in terrorem pronounced Solemn Curses in open Parliament as whosoever shall cast his eye upon our Statutes and publick Histories may discern was subverted torn away and scattered in 30 of King Henry the Eighths Reign after it had stood near Five hundred years the Glory of all these parts At which time the very Church it self tho a most beautiful Cathedral and the Mother Church of this City escaped not the Rude hands of the destroyers but was pull'd in pieces and reduced to Rubbish For the countenance of which sad Act the then Prior and Covent seeing the fate of some others that refused was no less than to be hanged up at their Gates were brought to make surrender of the same into the hands of Commissioners for the Kings use as appears by their publick Instrument under Seal bearing date 15 Jan. in the year abovesaid with all the names of those that subscribed thereunto Of the Charter-House at Coventry he has as follows pag. 134. Col. 1. After which viz. 17 Junii 34 H. 8. was the site of this Monastery inter alia granted out of the Crown to Richard Andrews Gent. and Leonard Chamberlain Esq and to the Heirs of Andrews How short a time these Two kept it I cannot say But I do not perceive that they enjoyed it many years for in 9 Eliz. Henry Waver alias Over a Coventry Mercer dyed seized thereof leaving Richard his Son and Heir 36 years of Age who in 11 Eliz. sold it to Robert Earl of Leicester Neither have any other that did since possess it continued owners thereof very long For from the Earl of Leicester it was sold to one Tho. Riley from him to Sampson Baker from Baker to Edw. Holt of Dudston Esq whose Son and Heir Thomas now of Aston K t. and Bar t. sold it to Rich. Butler of Coventry Gent. which Richard shortly after pass'd it away to one Lodge a Londoner from whom Edw. Hill Gent. purchased it whose Son Edward now enjoys it And Col. 2. he has thus But it was neither their Devout and strict lives nor these Charitable allowances that could preserve them from the common Ruine which befel all the rest of the Religious houses in 30 H. 8. as the Instrument of surrender whereunto their publick Seal is affixed bearing date 16 Jan. the same year and subscribed by the particular persons whose names I have here Inserted with the several pensions granted to each of them for life doth manifest The following account he gives of the Dissolurion of Wroxhall Monastery in Warwickshire pag. 492. col 2. But I now return to this Religious house of Wroxhall from the Ruin and Destruction whereof as also of the Church and Altar before specified no Consecration or Dedication were it never so Solemn and Sacred could affright that barbarous Generation which under â—…he Power and Authority of King Henry the Eighth subverted this and the rest of those Goodly structures of that kind wherewith England was so much adorned as a Preamble whereunto was that fatal Survey in 26 H. 8. made whereby it appears that the value of this then extended to 72 l. 12 s. 6 d. above all reprises Sir Edward Ferrers K t. being High Steward thereof and his â—…ee 3 l. 6 s. 8 d. per Ann. And that there then was every Maundy-Thursday distributed to poor people for the Founders Soul in Bread and Herrings with 13 d. in Money the Sum of 20 shillings After which viz. the next year following it was dissolved with the rest of the small Houses by Act of Parliament Anne Little being then Prioress and having a Pension of 7 l. 10 s. per Ann. granted to her by the King during life But the rest of her fellow Nuns were exposed to the wide World to seek their fortune And in 36 H. 8. granted inter alia I mean the site thereof with the Church Belfrey Church-yard and all the Lands in Wroxhall thereto belonging as also the Rectory and Tithes of Wroxhall unto Rob. Burgoyn and John Scudamore and their Heirs from which Robert is Sir John Burgoyn of Sutton in Com. Bedf. Baronet the present possessor thereof Descended And in the same place he takes occasion to make this discourse of the Dedication of Churches and of their bearing Saints Names pag. 492. col 1. Now the reason and signification of all these Ceremonies follows which I here for Brevity omit resolving to speak a word or two of the cause wherefore Churches do bear the Name of some Saint by which many of them are yet distinguished altho the Consecration or Dedication were unto none but unto God alone wherein I shall make use of St. Augustines Testimony To them saith he speaking of Angels and Saints we appoint no Churches because they are not to us as Gods Again The Nations to their Gods Erected Temples we not Temples unto our Martyrs as unto Gods but Memorials as unto dead Men whose Spirits with God are still living So that hereby is clearly manifest that as they were dedicated to God alone so was it in memory of some special Saint either as Mr. Hooker observes because by the Ministery of Saints it pleased God there to shew some rare effect of his power or else in regard of Death which those Saints having suffered for the Testimony of Jesus Christ did thereby make the places where they died venerable Thirdly for that it liked good and vertuous men to give such occasion of mentioning them often to the end that the naming of their Persons might cause enquiry to be made and meditation to be had of their virtues And here since these strange confusions began with a Dissolution of the Religious Houses I think it will not be amiss to give the Reader an account of the Institution of these Houses and of the Methods and Rules observed by the Monks that made profession in them And this out of Sir William Dugdales History of Warwickshire And first Of the Order of Benedictin Monks That the word Monachus which is derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth such a one as doth solitariam vitam degere I need not stand to demonstrate but who it was that may be said to have been absolutely the first that begun this course of Life I find no direct certainty Divers ascribe it to the Prophet Samuel others to Helias and Helyseâ—…s that liv'd in poor Cottages and Desert places near the River Jordan and long after them St. John the Baptist To whom may be added some of the Apostles as also St. Mark the Evangelist and by their example certain others viz. Paul