Answer that it is a True Church of God where Jesus Christ is truly taught and his Sacraments rightly Administred how can we disburthen our selves of our forsaking and flying from that Church which we do confess and acknowledge to be of God When with that Church which is of God we ought to be One and not to admit of any Separation If you Answer the Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Realm have not as yet received any Benefit of Christ seeing we have received no Gospel or other Doctrine nor no other Sacraments but what was sent unto us from the Church of Rome First in King Lucius his days at whose humble Epistle the Holy Martyr Elutherius then Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two Holy Monks Fugatius and Damianus by whose Doctrine and Preaching we were first brought to the knowledge of the Faith of Jesus Chrrst of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secuâ—…y 〈◊〉 St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did senâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin 〈◊〉 the Apostle of England and Milletus to receive the very self same Faith that had been before planted here in this Realm in the days of King Lucius Thirdly and Last of all Paulus Tertius being Bishop of Rome did send hither the Lord Cardinal Pool his Grace by Birth a Nobleman of this Land his Legate to restore us unto the same Faith which the Martyr St. Eleutherius and St. Gregory had Planted here many years before If therefore the Church of Rome be not of God but a false and Malignant Church then have we been deceived all this while seeing the Gospel the Doctrine Faith and Sacraments must be of the same nature as that Church is from whence it and they came and therefore in relinquishing and forsaking that Church the Inhabitants of this Realm shall be forced to seek further for another Gospel of Christ other Doctrine other Faith and Sacraments than we have hitherto received Which will breed such a Schism and Error in Faith as was never in any Christian Realm And therefore of your Wisdoms worthy of Consideration and maturely to be pondered and be provided for before you pass this Act of Supremacy Thus much touching the First chief Point Now to the Second Deliberation wherein I promised to move your Honors to consider What this Supremacy is which we go about by vertue of this Act to give unto the Queen and wherein it doth consist whether in Spiritual Government or Temporal But if Spiritual as these words in the Act do import Supream Head of the Church of England immediately and next unto God Then it would be considered in what Points this Spiritual Government doth consist and the Points being well known it would be considered Whether this House hath Authority to grant them and her Highness Ability to receive them And as concerning the Points wherein Spiritual Government doth consist I have in reading the Gospel and the whole course of Divinity thereupon as to my Vocation belongeth observed these Four as chief among many others whereof the first is The Power to loose and bind Sins When our Saviour in ordaining Peter to be Chief and Head-Governor of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whewhether you have sufficient Authority to grant unto her Majesty this first Point of Spiritual Government and to say unto Her Tibi dabimus c. To Thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If you say Yea then do we require the sight of Warrant and Commission by the Virtue of God's Word And if you say No then you may be well assured and perswade your selves that you have not sufficient Authority to make her Highness Supream Head of the Church of Christ here in this Realm The Second Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of these words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 20th Chapter of St. John's Gospel Pasce Pasce Pasce That is Feed my Lambs Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Now whether your Honors have Authority by this Court of Parliament to say unto our Sovereign Lady Pasce Pasce Pasce c. That is to say Feed you the Flock of Christ you must shew your Warrant and Commission for it And further it is evident that Her Majesty being a Woman by Birth and Nature is not qualified by God's word to feed the Flock of Christ appears most plainly by St. Paul in this wise Taceant Mulieres in Ecclesiis sicut lex dicit Ler Women be silent in the Church for it is not Lawful for them to speak but to be in subjection as the Law saith And it followeth in the same place Turpe est enim Mulieres loqui in Ecclesiâ that is for that it is not seemly for a Woman to speak in the Church And in his second Epistle to Timothy Dominari in virum sed esse silentes that is to say I allow not that a Woman be a Teacher or to be above her Husband but to keep her self in silence Therefore it appears likewise as your Honors have not Authority to give her Highness this second Point of Spiritual Government to Feed the Flock of Christ So by St. Pauls Doctrine her Highness may not intermeddle her self with the same And therefore She cannot be Supream Head of the Church here in England The Third chief Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of those words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 22th Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel Ego rogavi pro Te ut non deficiat fides Tua Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres Tuos That is I Prayed for Thee that thy Faith shall not fail and thou being converted Confirm thy Brethren and ratifie them in wholesome Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments which are the Holy Instruments of God so Instituted and Ordained for our Sanctification that without them his Grace is not to be received But to Preach or to administer the Sacraments a Woman may not be admitted to do neither may she be Supream of Christ's Church The Fourth and Last chief point of Spiritual Government which I promised to Note unto you doth consist in the Excommunication and Spiritual Punishment of all such as shall approve themselves not to be the Obedient Children of Christ's Church Of which Authority our Saviour Christ speaks in St. Matthew's Gospel in the 18th Chapter saying If your Brother offending will not hear your charitable admonition whether secretly at first or yet before one or two Witnesses then we must complain of him to the Church and If he will not hear the Church let him be taken as an Heathen or Publican So the Apostle did Excommunicate the
or Persons of what Estate Degree or Condition soever he or they be shall at any time after the First day of May willingly and wittingly eat any manner of Flesh after what manner or kind or sort it shall be ordered dressed or used upon any Friday or Saturday or upon any of the Ember-days or upon any day in the time commonly called Lent nor upon any such other day as is or shall be at any other time hereafter commonly excepted and reputed as a Fish-day within this Realm of England wherein it hath been commonly used to eat Fish and not Flesh Upon pain that every Person eating any manner of Flesh upon any of the said Days or Times prohibited by this Act shall forfeit for the said first offence Ten shillings and also suffer Imprisonment for the space of Ten days And during the time of his or her said Imprisonment shall abstain from eating of any manner of Flesh. Thus far the Act. Little or Nothing hath been hitherto done in this King's Reign as to Religion but pulling down and destroying Wherefore it is now time to Establish something Which is here done by that which immediately follows CHAP. IV. Of the Administring the Communion and of the Composing a Book of Common-Prayer Of which thus writes Dr. Heylyn page 57. SOme Bishops and others were Appointed by the King's Command to Consult together about one Uniform Order of Administring the Holy Communion in the English Tongue Who so ordered it That the whole Mass should proceed as formerly in the Latin Tongue even to the very end of the Canon and the receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest himself Which being ended they were to begin with an Exhortation in the English Tongue directed to all those that did intend to receive the Communion Which Exhortation began with these words Dearly Beloved in the Lord ye coming to this Holy Communion c. Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this strange medly in the Divine Service But notwithstanding the setting forth of this Uniform Order of Administring the Holy Communion yer there did arise a marvellous Schism and variety of Factions in Celebrating the Communion Service and Administring of the Sacrament and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church For some allowed of the King's proceedings others dissemblingly and patchingly used some part of them Many contemned them all Moreover it is observed in the Register-Book of the Parish of Petworth that many at this time affirmed that the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar was of little worth So that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other great Enormities committed Which they seconded by oppugning the Established Ceremonies as Holy-Water Holy-Bread and divers other Rites of the Seven Sacraments And yet these were not all the mischiefs which the time produced For in pursuance of this Schism many of those that had been licensed to Preach appeared as active in Preaching against the King's proceedings as many of the unlicensed Preachers had been found to be Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Confusions Upon this it was advised that a Publick Liturgy should be drawn and confirmed by Parliament which was accordingly done Now here it is to be observed that those who had the directing of this Business were before hand resolved that none but English Heads and Hands should be used therein lest otherwise it might be thought and perhaps objected That they rather followed the Example of some other Churches or were swayed by the Authority of those Forein Assistants than by the Word of God Certain it is that upon the very first reports of a Reformation here intended Calvin had offered his Assistance to Archbishop Cranmer as himself confessed But the Archbishop knew the man and refused the offer And it appears in one of Bishop Latimer's Sermons that there was a report about this time of Melancthon's coming But it proved only a report And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of the Universities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Bucer and Peter Martyr should be invited to come over yet the Archbishop's Letter of Invitation sent to Bucer was not written till the 12th of October at which time the Liturgy then in hand being the chief Key of the Work of Reformation was in a very good forwardness and must be compleatly finished before he could so settle and dispose his affairs in Germany as to come for England And though Peter Martyr being either more at leisure or more willing to accept of the Invitation came many months before the other yet neither do we find him here till the end of November when the Liturgy had been approved of Nor was it likely that they would make use of such a man in Composing a Liturgy wherein they were resolved to retain a great part of the ancient Ceremonies who being made Canon of Christ's Church in Oxford and frequently present at Divine Service in that Church could never be prevailed with to put on the Surplice Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the ground of setting out a Book of Common-Prayer CHAP. V. Of the Suppression of Chantries and other Foundations Whereof Dr. Heylyn gives this following Account page 60. WE must now attend the King's Commissioners dispatched into every Shire to take a Survey of all Colleges Free Chappels Chantries and Brotherhoods according to the return of Commissions it would be no difficult matter to put a just Estimate and Value on so great a Gift Or to know how to parcel out proportion and divide the Spoyl betwixt all such as had before in hope devoured it In the first place as lying nearest came in the Free Chappel of St. Stephen originally Founded in the Palace at Westminster reckoned for the Chappel-Royal of the Court of England The whole Foundation consisted of no fewer than Thirty eight Persons to wit One Dean Twelve Canons Thirteen Vicars Four Clerks Six Choristers besides a Verger and one that had charge of the Chappel There was likewise a certain number appointed for the officiating of the daily Service Gentlemen of the Chappel they were commonly called As for the Chappel it self together with a Cloyster of curious Workmanship built by John Chambers one of the Kings Physicians and the last Master of the same they are still standing as they were the Chappel having been since fitted and employ'd for a House of Commons in all times of Parliament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Chappel At the same time also fell the College of St. Martins scituated in the City of London not far from Aldersgate first founded for a Dean and Secular Canons in the time of the Conqueror This College was surrendred into the Hands of King Edward the Sixth who after gave the same to the Church of Westminster and they to make the best of the Kings Donation ordered That the Body of the Church with the Quire and Isles should be Leased out for Fifty years excepting out of the said Grant the Bells Lead Stone Timber Glass
Glory which by rash talk and words many have pretended And in so doing they should best please God and live without danger of the Laws and maintain the tranquillity of the Realm And furthermore for as much as it is well known That Sedition and false Rumors have been nourished and maintained in this Realm by the subtilty and malice of some evil-disposed Persons who take upon them without sufficient Authority to Preach and Interpret the Word of God after their own brains in Churches and other places both Publick and Private and also by playing Enterludes and Printing of false fond Books Ballads Rhymes and other lewd Treatises concerning Doctrine in matters now in Question Her Highness therefore strictly Charges and Commands That nothing in this kind be evermore Acted Thus Dr. Heylyn Relates Her moderate Proceedings as to Religion CHAP. III. A full Relation of the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome Anno Reg. Mar. 2. Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. THe next work was the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome But before the attempting this it was thought fit to remove one Difficulty which was most likely to hinder the progress of this Design The Difficulty was this There was a general fear That if the Popes were restored to their former Power the Church might challenge Restitution of her former Possessions Now to secure them against this Fear they had not only the Promise of the King and Queen but some Assurance underhand from the Cardinal Legat who knew right well that the Church Lands had been so chopped and changed by the Two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruine of many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who were invested in the same Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Obstacle Which being removed the work goes on The Relation whereof is thus delivered by Sir Rich. Baker Page 461. Cardinal Pool being sent for by the King and Queen came over into England from Rome as Legat à Latere Whereupon a Parliament being called and the King and Queen sitting there under a Cloth of State with the Cardinal on their right hand All the Lords Knights and Burgesses being present the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor made a short Speech signifying the Presence of the Lord Cardinal and that he was sent from the Pope as his Legat à Latere to do a work tending to the Glory of God and the Benefit of them all which says he you may better hear from his own Mouth Thus Sir Rich. Baker Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. Then the Cardinal rose up and made a very grave and eloquent Speech First giving them Thanks for being restored unto his Country In recompence whereof he told them That he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departure from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their Errors and chearfully to receive the benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech was said to have been long and Artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them away into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonor and reproach of the See Apostolick On the revoking of which Laws they should find him ready to make use of the Keys in opening of the door of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament That a Petition should be made in the Name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how sorry they were That they had withdrawn their Obedience from the Apostolick See and consented to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavor hereafter That the said Laws and Statutes should be Repealed beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they might be Absolved from their Crimes and Censures which they had incurred and be received as Penitent Children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on Sr. Andrews day Where being Assembled in the Presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner Whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supreme Head thereof To which they assenting the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the Name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readiness in giving them that Satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he shewed how acceptable the repentance of a Sinner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the Conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their Knees and imploring the Mercy of God received Absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom Which Absolution was pronounced in these following words viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who with his most precious Blood hath redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase to himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinkle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his Mercy Absolve you And we by Apostolical Authority given unto us by his Holiness Pope Julius the 3d. his Vice-gerent here on Earth do Absolve and Free you and every one of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred and also we do restore you again to the Unity of our Mother the Holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded by a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded that days work with a solemn Procession to the Chappel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy That from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrews-day should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and Celebrated with as much Solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also That the Actions of that Day should be communicated on the Sunday following at St. Paul's Cross in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by Water and landing at St. Paul's-wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars
notorious Fornicator that was among the Corinthians and by the Authority of his Apostleship unto which Apostles Christ ascending into Heaven did leave the whole Spiritual Government of his Church as it appeareth by those plain words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. 4th saying Ipse dedit Ecclesiae suae c. He hath given to his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors for consummation of the Saints to the work of the Ministry for edifying of the Body of Christ. But a Woman in the degrees of the Church is not called to be an Apostle nor Evangelist nor to be a Pastor as much as to say a Shepheard nor a Doctor or a Preacher Therefore she cannot be Supream Head of Christ's Militant Church nor yet of any part thereof For this High Government God hath appointed only to the Bishops and Pastors of his People as St. Paul plainly witnesseth in these words in the 20th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles saying Attendite vobis universo gregi c. And thus much I have here said right Honorable and my very good Lords against this Act of Supremacy for the discharge of my poor Conscience and for the Love and Fear and Dread that I chiefly owe unto God to my Sovereign Lord and Lady the Queens Majesties Highness and to your Honors All. Where otherwise without mature consideration of all these Premises your Honors shall never be able to shew your faces before your enemies in this matter being so strange a spectacle and example in Christ's Church as in this Realm is only to be found and in no other Christian Realm Thus humbly beseeching your Honors to take in good part this my rude and plain Speech which here I have used of much Zeal and fervent good will And now I shall not trouble your Honors any longer Thus as to this Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever else could be said against it the Act passed and this Supremacy was granted to the Queen CHAP. IV. A further Prosecution of the Settlement of this Change of Religion Established by Parliament and of the Opposition of the Catholick Clergy against this strange Innovation Dr. Heylyn pag. 108. NOw for the better exercising and enjoying the Jurisdiction thus acknowledged in the Crown there was this Clause put into the Act That it should be Lawful for the Queen to give Power to such as she thought fit to exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to visit reform redress order correct and amend all kind of Errors Heresies Schisms c. With this Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from thenceforth be accounted Heresie but what was so adjudged in the Holy Scripture or in one of the four first General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be so adjudged in the time to come by the Court of Parliament This was the first Foundation of the High Commission Court And from hence issued that Commission by which the Queens ministers proceeded in that visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss There also passed another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments according to such Alterations and Corrections as were made therein by those that were appointed to review it In performance of which service there was great care taken to expunge out all such passages in it as might give any Scandal or Offence to the Papists or be urged by them in excuse for their not coming to Church In the Litany fiâ—…st made and published by King Henry the Eighth and afterwards continued in the two Liturgies of King Edward the Sixth there was a Prayer to be delivered from the Tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome Which was thought fit to be left out as giving matter of Scandal and dissatisfaction to all that Party In the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sacrament of our Lord's Body was delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the Preservation of thy Body and Soul to Life Everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the Carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passed by the name of Transubstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered in this Form into the second Liturgy that is to say Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyned both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a carnal they might be thought also to ceny a real presence as was deâ—…ended in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion Service by which it was declared That kneeling at the Communion was required for no other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledgâ—…ent of the Benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Râ—…ceiver and to avoid that Prophanation and Disorder which otherwise might have ensued And not for giving any Adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or in regard of any Real or Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood This Rubrick is again lately inserted And to come up closer to those of the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queens Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread which the Book required only to be made of the finest Flower should be made round in the fashion of the Wafers used in the time of Queen Mary She also Ordered that the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood and that the accustomed Reverence should be made at the Name of Jesus Musick retained in the Church and all the other Festivals observed with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before mentioned the Book was made more plausible And that it might pass the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite That a Disputation should be held about some Points which were most likely to be keked at Two Speeches were made against this Book in the House of Peers by Scot and Feckenham and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York But they prevailed little in both Points by the Power of their Eloquence In the Convocation which accompanied this present Parliament there was little done because they despared of doing any good to Themselves or their Cause The chief thing they did was a Declaration of their Judgments in some certain Points which at that time were conceived fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say First That in the Sacrament of the Altar by
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
he is named before the Church in the Confession of our Faith Of which incomparable Excellency of the Church so beloved of Christ and so inseparably joyned in Marriage with him if the Hereticks of our time had any sense or consideration they would neither think their contemptible Company or Congregation to be the glorious Spouse of our Lord nor teach that the Church may Err that is to say may be divorced from her Spouse for Idolatry Superstition Heresie or other Abominations For this is as much as to say That this his Wife so dear and so praised here is in truth become a very Whore By this it evidently appears how just it is that all Hereticks should be Excluded from all hope of Salvation they being so injurious to Christ in thus reviling the Church his Spouse and accusing her of such horrid crimes It would require a large Volume to treat of all the passages of Scripture which speak of this Sacred Authority of our Mother the Church and the certain Damnation incurred by all such as refuse to hear and obey her to manifest which I conceive what has been here already said may suffice as also to confute that horrid false Opinion generally held in this Nation to the Destruction of many Souls to wit That all the multiplicity of Sects in this Nation may yet be capable of Salvation if they lead a Moral good Life which how untrue it is these following Testimonies of the Fathers conformable to the Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures will make it evidently appear CHAP. III. Testimonies of the Fathers shewing their Affection and Zeal to Catholick Unity and their detestation of Schisms and Divisions SAint Augustin says of the Donatists Epist. 48 That they conceived it a thing indifferent unto what Party they joyned themselves supposing that they were Christians and therefore they remained fixed to that Party in which they were born Now unto these St. Augustin and the rest of the Provincial Council at Cirta in Nuâ—…idia sent this following Declaration Aug. Epist. 152. Whosoever is separated from this Catholick Church amongst whom they reckoned the Sect of the Donatists how laudably soever he may think himself to live shall be excluded from Eternal Life and remain obnoxious to God's heavy Wrath as being guilty of the heinous crime of being divided from the Unity of Christ And as for the Sacraments received by them in that Separation the Declaration goes on thus You being fixed in the Sacriledge of Schism partake of the Sacraments of Christ to your own judgment or condemation Which Sacraments were profitable and very advantageous to you when in Catholick peace you had Christ for your Head where Charity covered a multitude of sins Again St. Augustin says of them De Bapt. lib. 1. chap. 8. Those whom the Donatists heal of the Wound of Idolatry and Infidelity they themselves wound more dangerously with the wound of Schism And again Super Gest. Emerit Out of the Catholick Church an Heretick may have all things but Salvation He may have the Sacraments He may sing Hallelujah He may answer Amen He may keep the Gospel He may have the Faith and Preach it only Salvation he cannot have Likewise in his Book against Petilian lib. 3. cap. 5. he saith No Man preaching the Name of Christ and carrying or ministring the Sacraments of Christ is to be followed against the Unity of Christ. And again writing against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets lib. 1. cap. 17. he hath these words If he hear not the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen or Publican which is more grievous than if he was strucken through with a Sword consumed by Flames exposed to wild Beasts c. And again August de Symb. ad Catech. lib. 4. cap. 10. For this cause says St. Austin our Christian Creed concludes with the Articles touching the Church because if any one be found separated from her he shall be excluded out of the number of God's Children neither shall he have God for his Father who will not have his Church for his Mother It will nothing profit such an one that he hath been Orthodox or sound in his Belief done so many Good Woorks c. Lastly In another place Lib. de Past. cap. 12. he saith The Devil saith not Let them be Donatists and not Arians for whether they be here or there they belong to him that grathers without making a difference Let him adore Idols saith the Devil he is mine Let him remain in the Superstition of the Jews he is mine Let him quit Unity and pass over to this or that or any Heresie he is mine So likewise the Ancient Father St. Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 62. God saith he will judge those which make Schisms in the Church Ambitious men who have not the honor of God before their eyes but rather embracing their own interest than the Unity of the Church for small and light causes divide the great and glorious Body of Christ. In like manner St. Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria Hist. lib. 6. cap. 45. as Eusebius witnesseth writing to Novatian saith A Man ought rather to endure All Things than to consent to the Division of the Church of God since Martyrdom to which Men expose themselves to hinder the dismembring of the Church is no less glorious than what a Man suffers for refusing to sacrifice to Idols Also St. Cyprian Lib. de Unitat. Ecles in his Book of the Unity of the Church Do they think saith he that Christ is amongst them when they are Assembled I speak of those which make Assemblies out of the Church of Christ. No although they were drawn to Torments and Execution for the Confession of the Name of Christ yet this pollution is not washed away No not with their Blood This inexplicable and inexcusable crime of Schism is not purged away even by death it self That Man cannot be a Martyr that is not in the Church And again he saith He shall not have God for his Father that would not have the Church for his Mother So likewise St. Pacianus in one of his Epistles Epist. 2. ad Sempr. Although that Novatian saith he hath been put to death for Christ yet he has not received a Crown And why Because he was separated from the peace of the Church from concord from that Mother of whom whosever will be a Martyr must be a portion St. Chrysostom in one of his Homilies Hom. 11. in Ephes. tells us There is nothing doth so sharply provoke the wrath of God as the Division of the Church insomuch as though we should have performed all other sorts of Good Things yet we shall incur a punishment no less cruel by dividing the Unity and Fulness of the Church than those have done who pierced and divided Christ's own Body And therefore the Fourth Council of Carthage declares Can. 1. That out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation St. Fulgentius likewise saith De Remiss Peccat cap. 22.
words of our Saviour John 6. 55. My Flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed Where he writes thus The following words are these as my Living Father sent me and I live by the Father so he that eats or feeds upon me shall live by me Our Saviour has taught us by these Misterious Words That we are to be as Members in his Body the Church under him or connected to him as our Head feeding upon his Flesh and not deserting his Unity Now that which makes us his Members is this Unity Which Unity is caused by charity diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us It is therefore the Spirit to wit of Charity that gives life making us living Members Nor does this Spirit make any living Members but such as are in the Body of the Church which receives life from the same Spirit For the Spirit or Soul which is in man does not give life to a member separated from the Body because it is not joyned by Union to the same Body The design of this Discourse is to move us to love Unity and fear a separation from the Church For a Christian ought to fear nothing more than to be separated from the Body of Christ to wit his Church Since such as are separated from this his Mystical Body are not his Members and not being his Members they cannot receive life from his Spirit Now the Apostle assures us That such as have not the Spirit of Christ belong not to him And a little after in the same Homily he goes on thus The Faithful know Christ's Body if they neglect not to be his Body They must be his Body if they will live of the Spirit of Christ. For none live of the Spirit of Christ but his Body the Church Consider well what I have said You being a Man are composed of a body and a spirit which is otherwise termed a Soul The Spirit or Soul is invisible the Body visible Now as your Body lives by your Spirit so if you will live by the Spirit of Christ you must be in the Body of Christ. For as my Body lives by my Spirit and your Body by yours so the Body of Christ cannot live but by the Spirit of Christ. He that desires to live may understand here where he is to live and from whence he is to receive his life He must approach believe and be incorporated if he pretends to live He must not voluntarily separate himself from being connected with the Members of this Body of the Church nor be a corrupted Member so as to deserve to be cut off Nor yet so deformed or out of order that the rest of the Members of the Body may be ashamed of him He is therefore to be fair and neat aptly proportioned to the rest and in perfect health Moreover he must be careful to adhere closely to the Body of the Church taking his life from God and referring it to him labouring here in this life that he may afterwards reign in Heaven Thus St. Augustin convinces evidently That no Schismatick or Heretick can be saved CHAP. V. A further manifestation of the Horridness of the Sin of Schism and in what Case Ignorance may Excuse from the Guilt of it NOw yet to penetrate more fully into the true Grounds why above almost all other Sins a Christian is capable of committing Schism that is the setting up of an Altar against an Altar or the relinquishing the External Communion of the Church the making Collects or Assemblies without yea against the consent of the true Bishops or Church Governors c. should be a sin so unpardonable we are to consider that the true reason of this may be deduced from the Example of all other Governments whatsoever For the greatest offence a Subject can commit against Monarchy is an actual attempt or rather the attempt executed by which Monarchy is dissolved Inwardly to condemn the Laws of such a Government or to entertain Principles which if put in practice would withdraw Subjects from their due Obedience is an offence of an high nature but the actual Cantonizing of a Kingdom and the raising in it Courts and Judicatories independent on and opposite to the Common Tribunal of the Country is the utmost of all crimes both the Seducers and the Seduced are not only deprived of the Privileges belonging to good Subjects but pursued by Arms as the worst of All Enemies It is so in God's Church The main Thing our Creed teaches us to believe of it is its Unity without which it is not a Church Now if Unity then Order then Subordination of Governments c. What therefore is the great Sin against this Fundamental Constitution of the Church but Schism A dissolving the Communion and connexion that the Members of this great Body have amongst themselves and with relation to the whole We all willingly acknowledge that the great sin of the Synagogue the sin that filled up the measure of the crimes of the Jews was their Murdering of our Lord. Now says St. Chrisâ—…stom Homil. 11. ad Ephes. We shall not merit or incur a less cruel Punishment if we divide the Unity and Plenitude of the Church the Mystical Body of our Lord then Those have done who pierced mangled and tore his own Body But may not Ignorance excuse the Guilt of Schism No On the contrary in some regard it aggravates it For though Pride and Malice be far greater in the leading Schismaticks Persons of Wit and Learning yet ignorant Souls and Ideots seem more to contradict Human reason because the more ignorant they are and being no Pastors the more they ought to submit their judgments to Authority and consequently the preferring their own conduct or the conduct and direction of particular men or Churches before the universal Authority of the Church the Excommunicating as it were the whole Church of God the esteeming all Christians both Pastors and Flocks as Heathens and Publicans is a presumption so contrary to human nature and reason that their want of Learning is that which will most of all condemn them I speak not now of Persons absolutely Ideots who scarce know there are any other Pastors or any other Church than their own who pretend not at all to pass their judgments on other Religions but know only what their Pastors teach them having not ability by reason of their condition to examine Scriptures and Churches For such no doubt may by their simplicity and absolute invincible ignorance escape the malignity of Schism But I speak of Inferior Tradsmen of Gentlemen and Gentlewomen who have a capacity of being rightly instructed and better informed of the Spiritual Authority to which they owe their Subjection and yet who by their own perversness become troublers of the Church and who because they can read the Scriptures take upon them to judge of the Sense of them both for themselves and their Pastors Such as these no doubt have drunk in the
for so many Ages forsake his Church and leave her in an Error Again the beauty and splendor of that Church their Solemn Service the stateliness and magnificence of their Hierarchy their name of Catholick which they claim as their own due and to concern no other Sect of Christianity The Antiquity of their Doctrin the continual Succession of their Bishops their immediate derivation from the Apostles Their Title to Succed St. Peter whose Personal Prerogatives were so great The Honorable Expressions concerning this Church from many eminent Bishops of other inferior Sees which being old Records have obtain'd a credibility The multitude and variety of People which are of their Perswasion Apparent consent with elder Ages in matters Doctrinal The Advantage which is derived to them by retaining the Doctrin of the Church of Ancient times The great consent one part with another in that which they affirm to be de Fide The great differences which are commenced amongst their Adversaries abusing the liberty of Prophesying unto a very great Licentiousness Their happiness in being instrumental in converting divers Nations The advantage of Monarchical Government and the benefit which they daily enjoy by it The Piety and the Austerity of their Religious Orders of Men and Women The single life of their Priests and Bishops The riches of their Church The severity of their Fasts and other their Exterior Observances The great Reputation of their Bishops for Faith and Sanctity The known Holiness of some of those Persons whose Institutes the Religious Persons do now imitate and follow Their Miracles The Casualties and Accidents that have hapned to many of their Adversaries The oblique Acts and indirect Proceedings of some of those who have departed from them And among many other Things the names of Heretick and Schismatick which they fasten upon all that disagree from them c. Thus Dr. Taylor See the Learned Grotius declaring the impossibility of Uniting Christians into one Body but by their adhering to the Roman See What is the reason saith Grotius in his First Reply to Rivet ad Artic. 7. That such as differ in Opinion amongst Catholicks remain in the same Body not breaking Communion But on the contrary when dissensions happen amongst Protestants they cannot thus compose Disputes and oppositions although they speak much of Fraternal Love Now he that shall examine this well will find how much force and power there is in the Primacy Thus he This brings to mind that saying of St. Jerom concerning St. Peter's Primacy Wherefore amongst the Twelve One was chosen that a Head being constituted and appointed all occasion of Schism might be taken away Hieronym lib. 1. cap. 14. advers Jovinian Now again the same Grotius in the close of his last Reply to Rivet written not long before his death writes thus It is well known that Grotius has always wished for a Restitution and Reuniting of Christians into one and the same Body He was sometime of Opinion that this might have been begun by a Conjunction or Union of Protestants amongst themselves But he afterwards discerned that this was impossible to be effected because besides that most of all the Calvinists are totally averse from any such Peace or Union Protestants are not associated or united under any Common Ecclesiastical Government which is the cause why the diverse parts of them cannot be collected into one Body And withal this is the Reason that they must necessarily still divide into more new Sects or Parts Wherefore Grotius now plainly sees and judges as likewise many others with him that Protestants can never be united amongst themselves unless they be joyned with those that adhere to the Roman See whithout which no common Government can be expected in the Church And therefore he wishes that the Division and Separation which has been made and likewise the causes of it may be taken away Now amongst these the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome according to the Canons cannot be looked upon as one cause even by the Confession of Melancthon himself who thinks that Premacy to be necessary for the retaining and preserving of Unity Thus Grotius concering the Uniting all Christans by their adhering to the Roman See See Doctor Field in the Preface to his Book of the Church recommending the ending all Disputes in Religion by a lawful church-Church-Authority Seeing saith he the Controversies in Religion in our times are grown in number so many and in matters so intricate that few have time and leisure fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in Things of such consequence but diligently to search out which amongst all the Societies of the World is that Blessed company of Holy Ones that Houshold of Faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the Living God which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth that so he may embrace her Communion follow her Directions and rest in her Judgment Thus Dr. Field In like manner Dr. Hammond in his Treatise of Heresie Sect. 13. Num. 2 3. speaks thus of the Christians Security from the Divine Providence in his adherance in matters of Faith to Church Authority If we consider saith he God's great wise and constant Providence and care over his Church his desire that All Men should be saved and in order to that come to the knowledge of all necessary Truth his Promise That he will not suffer his Faithful Servants to be tempted above what they are able nor permit scandals and false Teachers to prevail to the seducing of the very Elect his most Pious Godly Servants If I say we consider These and some other such-like general Promises of Scripture wherein this question about the Errability of Councils seems to be concerned we shall have reason to believe that God will never suffer All Christians to fall into such a Temptation as it must be in case the whole Representative of the Church should err in matters of Faith and therein find approbation and reception amongst all Those Bishops and Doctors of the Church diffused which were out of the Council Thus he See also his Commentary on 1 Tim. 3. 15. The Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth According to this it is saith he that Christ is said Ephes. 4. 12. to have given not only Apostles c. but also Pastors and Teachers that is Bishops in the Church for the compacting the Saints into a Church for the building up of the Body of Christ confirming and continuing them in all Truth that we should be no more like Children carried about with every wind of Dectrin And so again when Heresies came into the Church in the first Ages 't is every where apparent by Ignatius his Epistles that the only way of avoiding Error and Danger was to adhere to the Bishop in Communion and Doctrin And whosoever departed from him and from that Form of wholesome words kept by him was supposed to be corrupted Thus far Dr. Hammond See Doctor Jackson on the
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-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-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-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
Historical COLLECTIONS Out of several Grave Protestant Historians Concerning the CHANGES OF RELIGION AND The strange Confusions following In the Reigns of KING HENRY the Eighth EDWARD the Sixth QUEEN MARY and ELIZABETH With an Addition of several Remarkable Passages taken out of Sir Will. Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire relating to the Abbies and their Institution Published with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And for him and Matâ—… Turâ—…er at the Lamb in High holbourn 1686. THE PREFACE HAving perused several of our Histories of England and standing amazed to find in them That the Alteration of Religion here hath been totally carried on by worldly Interest I thought it would not be ungrateful to the Reader to have those various Passages concerning the Changes of Religion collected together out of those Histories for the informing him exactly how those Changes have been made And withal of the Beginning and Progress of Presbytery in this Nation and the Ground of Multiplying other Sects which hath been the cause of all our late Confusions I have laboured to connect these Passages together in as good an order as I think could be expected in matters â—…ulled out of such large volumns Much more might have been Collected concerning these matters out of diverse other Histories But I think the chief matters are here sufficiently handled which may satisfie the curiosity of any indifferent Reader To add more Authority to what shall be here taken out of Dr. Heylyns History of Reformation from whence the chiefest matters of these Collections are gathered I will here Insert a Passage out of the Preface of it by which it will appear what diligence he hath used in composing this History The words of the Preface are these IN this following History you will find more to satisfie your curiosity and inform your judgment then can be possibly drawn up in this general view As for my performance in this work In the first place I am to tell you that towards the raising of this Fabrick I have not borrowed my materials only out of vulgar Authors but searched into the Records of the Convocation consulted all such Acts of Parliament as concerned my purpose advised with many Forein Writers of great name and credit exemplified some Records and Charters of no common quality many rare pieces in the Cottonian Library and not a few Debates and Orders of the Council-Table which I have laid together in as good a form and beautified it with a trimming as agreeable as my hands could give it Thus Dr. Heylyn A Preamble to the following Collections concerning the great Kindness and good Correspondence between King Henry the Eighth and some Popes FIrst King Henry the Eighth for writing a Book against Luther received a Bull from the Pope whereby he had the Title given him to be Defender of the Faith for him and his Successors for ever The Relation concerning which Book and the Reception of it by the Pope is thus set down in the History of the Lord Herbert of Cherbury pag. 104. OUr King being at leisure now from Wars and delighting much in learning thought he could not give better proof either of his Zeal or Education then to write against Luther To this also he was exasperated That Luther had oftentimes spoken contemptuously of the learned Thomas of Aâ—…uin who yet was in so much requst with the King that he was therefore called Thomistious Hereupon the King compiles a Book wherein he strenuously opposed Luther in the point of Indulgences Number of Sacraments the Papal Authority and other particulars to be seen in that his work Entitled de Septem Sacramentis c. a principal Copy whereof richly bound being sent to Leo I remember my self to have seen in the Vatican Library The manner of the delivery whereof as I find it in our Records was thus Doctor John Clark Dean of Windsor our Kings Embassador appearing in full Consistory the Pope knowing the glorious Present he brought first gave him his cheek to kiss and then receiving the Book promised to do so much for the Approbation thereof as ever was done for St. Augustine or St. Hierome's Works Assuring him withal that the next Consistory he would bestow a publick Title on our King which having been heretofore privately debated among the Cardinals those of Protector Defensor Romanae Ecclesiae or Sedis Apostolicae or Rex Apostolicus or Orthodoxus produced they at last agreed on Defensor Fidei a Transcript of which Bull out of an Original sub plumbo in our Records I have here inserted Leo Bishop Servant of the Servants of God to his most dear Son Henry King of England Defender of the Faith All health and happiness God having called Us although infinitely unworthy of it to the Government of the whole Church We bend all Our thoughts to promote the Catholick Faith without which none can be saved and labour by all means as belongs to Our duty to make use of and promote all such helps as have been wisely ordained for the preserving the integrity of Christian Faith amongst all but most especially amongst Princes and to suppress the endeavours of those who labour to corrupt it by lies and false Doctrines And as other Bishops of Rome our Predecessors have been accustomed to confer special favours upon Catholick Princes according to the exigency of Times and Affairs Especially upon such as have not only remained unmovable in their Obedience to the Holy Roman Catholick Church with an entire Faith and servent Devotion in the tempestuous times and raging perfidious fury of Schismaticks and Hereticks But likewise as legitimate Children and stout Champions of the same Church have opposed themselves both temporally and spiritually against the mad fury of such Schismaticks and Hereticks as have opposed it So we also desire to extol your Majesty with condign and immortal Praises for your excellent and immortal works and actions in favour of Us and this Holy See where by Gods permission we are established and to grant you those things which may enable and engage you to have a care to preserve our Lords Flock from Wolves and to cut off with the material Sword rotten members that seek to infect the mystical Body of Christ confirming in the solidity of Faith the Hearts of such as waver or are in danger of falling When our beloved Son John Clark your Majesties Orator or Embassador deliver'd unto Us in Our Consistory before Our Venerable Brethren Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and many other Prelates of the Roman Court a Book which your Majesty hath composed out of your great Charity and Zeal of Catholick Faith enflamed with a fervour of Devotion towards Us and this Holy See as a Noble and proper Antidote against the errors of divers Hereticks often condemned by this Holy See and lately raised up again by Martin Luther he then likewise further declared unto Us your Majesties desire that this
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
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
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
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
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-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
vertue of Christ's Assistance after the words of Consecration are duly pronounced by the Priest the Natural Body of Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of Bread and Wine As also his Natural Blood Secondly That after the Consecration there remains not the Substance of Bread and Wine nor any Substance but the Substance of God and Man Thirdly that the true Body of Christ and his Blood is offered for a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead Fourthly That the Supream Power of Feeding and Governing the Militant Church of Christ and of Confirming their Brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicars of Christ. Fifthly That the Authority to handle and define such things as belong to Faith the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Discipline hath hitherto ever belonged and only ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the Holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-men These Articles they caused to be Engrâ—…ssed and so commended them to the Care and Consideration of the Higher House presented by Boner to the hands oâ—… the Lord Keeper Bacon by whom they were candiâ—…ly received But they prevailed no further with the Queen or House of Peers when imparted to them than that possibly they might help forwards the aforementioned Disputation It was on the Four and twentieth of June that that the 〈◊〉 Liturgy was to be officiated in all the Churches of the Kingdom In the performance oâ—… which service the Bishops giving no encouragement and many of the Clergy being backwâ—…d in it it was thought fit to put them to a Final Tâ—…st and either to bring them to Conformity or to bestow their â—…laces and 〈◊〉 on mâ—…re â—…actable Pâ—…sons The Bishops at that time were reduced into a narrowâ—… 〈◊〉 than at any other time befâ—… â—…ere being no more than Fifteen of that 〈◊〉 Order 〈◊〉 alive These being â—…alled by certain of the Lords of the 〈◊〉 were required to take the Oath of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Landaff only takes it who having â—…merly submitted to every Change resolved to shew himself no Changâ—…ing in not conforming to the pleasures of the Higher Powers By all the rest it was refused Whereupon they were deprived of their Bishopricks The Bishops being thus put out the Oath is tendred next to the Deans and Chapters and lastly to the rural Clergy Thus â—…r Heylyn It is here to be noted That during the forementioned Convocation there came from both the Universities a Writing signed by a publick Notary by which they both signified their concurrence to the aforesaid Articles only with a little alteration of the last But these Declarations and Protestations of the whole Representative Clergy and Universities were not like to signifie much since a Change of Religion was absolutely resolved on CHAP. V. Of an Ignorant and Illiterate Clergy and a medley of Calvinists introduced to Govern this New Church and of some other particulars concerning the Settlement of it Dr. Heylyn pag. 115. BY the Deprivations of these Persons and the death of so many in the last years sickness there was not to be found a sufficient number of Learned men to supply the Cures Which filled the Church with an Ignorant and Illiterate Clergy Whose Learning went no further than the Liturgy or the Book of Homilies but otherwise conformable which was no small felicity to the rules of the Church And on the otherside many were raised to great preferments who having spent their time of 〈◊〉 in such Forreign Churches as followed the Platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government and unto the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established as not long after filled the Church with most sad disorders not only to the breaking of the Bond of Peace but likewise to the extinguishing the Spirit of Unity And not to speak of private Opinions nothing was more considered in them than their zeal against Popery On which account we find the Queens Professor at Oxford to pass amongst the Non-Conformists though some-what more moderate than the rest And Cartwright at Cambridge to prove an unextinguished Fire-brand to the Church of England Wittington the chef Ring-leader of the Frankfort-Schismaticks preferred unto the Deanry of Durham From thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbytery and Sedition in the Kirk of Scotland Sampson advanced to the Deanry of Christ's-Church and within a few years after turned out again for an incorrigible Non-conformist Hardiman one of the first Twelve Prebends of the Church of Westminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church The Pope being informed of these proceedings labours to Perswade the Queen from going on with these Alterations in Religion But that not succeeding She sent out by the Advice of her Council a certain Body of Injunctions the same in effect with those which had been published in the First of King Edward but more accommodated to the temper of the present time Nothing more singular in them than the severe course taken about Ministers Marriages But this was long since worn out of use and not much observed when it first came out As if it had been published only in way of Caution to make the Clergy-men more wary in the choice of their Wives rather than with any purpose of pursuing it to an Execution Concerning the Position of the Holy Table it was ordered thus by these Injunctions viz. That no Altar should be taken down but by over-sight of the Curate of the Church or the Church-wardens or one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at least wherein no riotous or disordered manners were to be used And that the Holy Table in every Church should be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belonged and as should be appointed by the Visitors And so to stand saving when the Communion of the Sacrament was to be Administred At which time the same should be placed within the Quire or Chancel as whereby the Minister might be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Administration and the Communicants also more conveniently and in more number Communicate with the said Minister And after the Communion done from time to time the said Table to be placed where it stood before By these Injunctions she made way for her visitation regulated by the Book of Articles By which Articles all Images were removed out of the Church and all the Roods and other Images which had been taken out of the Churches were burnt in St Paul's Church-Yard Cheapside and other places of the City And in some places the Copes Vestments Altar-cloths Books Sepulchers and Rood-lofts were burnt altogether Thus far Dr. Heylyn concerning the first progress of this Change of Religion established by Parliament A short Note conclâ—…g the Occurrences of this year I Will end the Occurrences of this year with the Relation of a
the Congregation managing their own Affairs apart from the rest of the Kingdom The principal Leaders of the Party well followed by the Common People put themselves into Perth and there begin to stand upon higher terms than before they did The news whereof occasioneth Knox to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva and joyn himself unto the Lords of the Congregation At Perth he goes into the Pulpit and falls so bitterly on Images that the People in a popular fury deface all the Images in that Church and presently demolish all the Religious Houses within that City Those of Couper hearing of it forthwith destroy all the Images and pull down the Altars in that Church also Preaching at Craile he enveighed sharply against the Queen-Regent and vehemently stirred up the people to joyn together for the expulsion of the French Which drew after it the like destruction of all Altars and Images as was made before at Perth and Couper The like followed on his Preaching at St. Andrews also the Religious Houses being pulled down as well as the Images and laid so flat that there was nothing left in the form of a building Inflamed by the same Fire-brand they burned down the Rich Monastery of Schone and ruined that of Cambus-braneth demolished all the Altars Images and Convents of Religious persons in Sterling Lithgow Glascough Edenburgh making themselves masters of the last and putting up their own Preachers into all the Pulpits of the City not suffering the Queen Regent to have the use of One Church only for her Devotions Nor staid they here but being carried on by the same ill Spirit they pass an Act amongst themselves for Depriving the Queen-Regent of all place and Power in the Publick Government Concerning which the Oracle being first consulted returned this answer sufficiently ambiguous as all Oracles are that is to say That the iniquity of the Queen Regent ought not to with draw their hearts from the Obedience due to their Sovereigns Nor did he wish any such sentence to be pronounced against her but when she should change her course and submit her self to good counsel there should place be left unto her of regress to the same Honors from which for good causes she ought to be deprived This Act is intimated to the Queen-Regent who ordered her business so well that they were quickly brought to great extremity and had been soon suppressed but for the Succors they received from England Thus Dr. Heylyn This Rebellion is thus delivered by Sir Rich. Baker Page 475. IT happened that there was a Reformation begun in Scotland But was indeed an Encroachment upon the Princes Authority For at the Preaching of Knox and other head-strong Ministers not only great Outrages were committed in Churches but it was likewise put into the heads of the Nobility That it pertained to them of their own Authority to take away Idolatry and by force to reduce the Prince to to the prescript of the Laws Whereupon there was presently a banding of the Lords of Scotland against the Queen-Dowager Regent of the Country and England fomenting and supporting the Rebellion the Queen was at last worsted and forced to fly into England Where contrary to promise of being friendly received by Queen Elizabeth she was kept Eighteen years in prison and afterwards beheaded The Order of whose Death and Execution was as follows The sentence of Condemnation being pronounced against her some Earls were sent to Fotheringham where She was kept prisoner These together with Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Drue Drury with whom she was then in custody go to the Queen and reading their Commission signifie the cause of their coming and in a few words admonish her to prepare her self for death For that she must die the next day whereunto without any change of her countenance or passion of mind she made answer I had not thought that my Sister the Queen would have consented to my death who am not subject to your Laws But since it is her pleasure death shall be to me most welcome Then she requests that she might confer with her Confessor and Melvyn her Steward But the first would not be granted her The Bishop or Dean of Peterborough they offered her but them she refused The Earls being departed from her she gave order that Supper should be hastned where she eat as she used to do soberly and sparingly And perceiving her men and women-Servants to lament and weep she comforted them and bid them rejoyce rather that she was now to depart out of a world of misery After Supper she looks over her Will reads the Inventory of her Goods and Jewels and writ their Names severally to whom she gave any of them At her wonted hour she went to bed and after a few hours sleep awaking spent the rest of the night in her devotion And now the Fatal day being come she gets up and makes her ready in her best Apparel and then betook her self to her closet to Almighty God imploring his assistance with deep sighs and groans Until Thomas Andrews Sheriff of the County gave notice 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come forth And then with a 〈◊〉 Majesty and cheerful countenance 〈◊〉 came out her head covered with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and carrying an Ivory-Crucifix in 〈◊〉 hand In the Gallery the Earls met her and the other Gentlemen Where Melvyn her Servant upon his knees deplored his own Fortune that he should be the Messenger to carry this sad news into Scotland Whom she comforted saying Do not lament Melvyn you shall by and by see Mary Stuart freed from all her cares Then turning her self to the Earls she requested that her Servants might stand by at her death Which the Earl of Kent was very loath to grant for fear of Superstition To whom she said Fear nothing These desire only to give me my last farewel And I know the Queen my Sister would not refuse me so small a request After this the two Earls leading the way with the Sheriff of the County she came to the Scaffold which was set up at the upper end of the Hall where was a Chair a Cushion and a Block all covered with Mourning Then she falling upon her knees and holding up the Crucisix in both her hands prayed with her Servants out of the Office of our Lady Prayers being ended she kissed the Crucisix and signing her self with the sign of the Cross she said As thy Arms O Christ were stretched forth upon the Cross so embrace me with the open Arms of thy Mercy And then the Executioner asking her pardon she forgave him And now her Women helping off her outward Garments and breaking forth into shreeks and cries she kissed them signed them with the Cross and willed them to leave lamenting for now an end of her Sorrows was at hand And then shadowing her face with a linnen cloth and lying down on the Block she repeated the Psalm In Te Domine Speravi non confundar in aeternum At which words she
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
Platform And others looked upon the Homilies as beggerly Rudiments scarce Milk for Babes But by no means to be looked upon as Meat for a stronger stomack In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore no way to be subscribed unto Of which number none so much remarkable as Father John Fox the Martyrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Frankfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva Who being now called upon to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and Piety might advance the work he is said to have appeared before the Bishop carrying the New-Testament in Greek with him before whom he spake these words To this Book I will subscribe and if this will not serve take my Prebend'ry at Salisbury the only Preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you But notwithstanding this refractory Answer so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and place together The Genevians for the greater countenanceing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the French and Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecill in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first Addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England But Peter Martyr whilst he lived conceived himself to have some Interest in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular Persons and Members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle in which how much he countenanced the Faction in King Edward's time both by his Practice and Pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before But how much he was out-gone by Beza who next usurped a Super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of altogether shall be briefly this That this poor Church might better have wanted their best helps in Points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Calvinists Dr Heylyn having little or nothing in the Fourth and Fifth year of this Queens Reign that belongs to the matter of these Notes we will pass to the 6th year CHAP. XII Of one Cartwright a great Promoter of Presbytery and of the Earl of Leicester and the death of Calvin Anno Reg. Eliz. 6. Dr. Heylyn pag. 164. THis Summer in a Progress the Queen came to Cambridge where were sown the seeds of those Divisions and Combustions with which the Church of England hath been continually distracted to this very day For so it happened that one Preston and Cartwright were appointed to hold a Disputation In which the First was both liked and rewarded by Her the Other receiving neither reward nor commendation Which so incensed the proud man that he retired to Geneva Where having throughly informed himself in all particulars both of Doctrine and Discipline wherein the Churches of that Platform differed from the Church of England he returned home with an intent to repair his credit or rather to get himself a name by raising such a fire and such combustions in the Church of England as never were to be extinguished but by the immediate hand of Heaven The next considerable Action which followed on the Queens Reception at Cambridge was the preferring of Sir Robert Dudley the Second Son then living of the Duke of Northumberland to the Titles of Lord Denbigh and Earl of Leicester She had before Elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Master of her Horse and Chancellor of the University of Oxon suffered him to carry a great sway in all Affairs both of Court and Council and given unto him the fair Mannor of Denbigh being conceived to be one of the goodliest Territories in England And now She adds unto these Honors the goodly Castle and Mannor of Kenelworth part of the parrimony of the Duchy of Lancaster Advanced unto which height he engrossed unto himself the disposing of all Offices in the Court and State and of all Preferments in the Church proving in fine so unappeasable in his Malice and unsatiable in his Lusts so Sacrilegious in his Rapines so false in Promises and treacherous in point of Trust And finally so destructive of the Rights and Proprieties of particular Persons that his Little Finger lay heavier on the English Subjects than the Loins of all the Favourites of the Two last Kings And that his Monstrous Vices most insupportable in any other but himself might either be connived at or not complained of he cloaks them with a seeming zeal to the true Religion and made himself Head of the Puritan Faction Who spared no pains in seting forth his praises upon all occasions Nor was he wanting to caress them after such a manner as he found most agreeable to those Holy Hypocrites using no other language in his Speech and Letters than pure Scripture-phrase in which he was become so dextrous as if he had received the same Inspirations with the Sacred Pen-men But notwithstanding the viciousness of this man yet the Queen laboured further to advance him even to a Marriage with the Queen of Scots As appears by this Relation of Dr. Heylyn pag. 169. Queen Elizabeth kept a Stock still going in Scotland the returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots being now a Widow possessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this Queen Elizabeth proposes to her a Marriage with the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those Eminent Honors to make him in some sort capable of a Queens Affections Which Proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining the unequal offer and Leicester dealing under-hand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that aversness having given himself a hope of Marrying Queen Elizabeth interpreting all her Favors to proceed in order to it I had not spoken so much of this Earl of Leicester but that he seemed to have been born for the destruction of the Church of England as will appear by what shall be here said concerning the Presbyterians in this Queens Reign But leaving this Court-Meteor to be gazed on by unknowing men we will now conclude this Sixth year with that which was very advantageous to the Church of England to wit the Death of Calvin By whose Authority if he had lived longer much more Disorders and Confusions must have necessarily succeeded For his Name was much Reverenced not only by
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
Out of this Church neither the Title of Christian secures any one neither doth Baptism confer Salvation neither doth any man offer a Sacrifice agreeable to God neither doth any man attain to Eternal Life For there is one only Church one only Dove one only Well-Beloved one only Spouse And again in his Book De Fide ad Petrum cap. 39. Hold this saith he most firmly and doubt not of it in any wise That every Heretick and Schismatick whatsoever Baptized in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost if before the end of his Life he be not Reunited to the Catholick Church let him bestow never so many Alms yea though he should shed his Blood for the Name of Christ he cannot obtain Salvation Likewise St. Prosper says Lib. de Prom. Praedestinat Dei p. 4. cap. 5. He who does not Communicate with the Universal Church is an Heretick and Antichrist See Athanasius in the beginning of his Creed Whosoever expects to be saved must necessarily before all things Assent to and retain the Catholick Faith which unless he preserves intire and inviolate that is entirely submits to it without all question he will perish everlastingly And again at the end thereof thus This is the Catholick Faith which except a Man believe Faithfully he cannot be saved See St. Augustin writing upon this Beatitude Blessed are those that suffer Persecution for Justice Lib. 1. de Sermone Domini in Monte. It is not the suffering these Things saith he that makes men Blessed but the undergoing them for the Name of Christ not only with an equal mind but likewise with joy and much satisfaction For many Hereticks deceiving Souls under the name of Christians have suffered many of these things But they are therefore excluded from this reward of being Blessed because it is not here only said Blessed are those which suffer Persecution but it iâ—… further added for Justice Now where Faith is not sound and entire there can be no perfect Justice since the Just man lives by Faith Neither can Schismaticks promise to themselves any thing of this reward because likewise where there is no Charity there can be no Justice For the love of our Neighbor cannot design any thing that is evil or unjust against him Hence it is manifest that if they had such Charity they would not seek to rent and tear in pieces the Body of Christ which is his Church Likewise the same Father in his Fourteenth Sermon De verbis Domini proves in general against all Hereticks and Schismaticks That whatsoever in particular their opinions are yet since they profess otherwise than the Church does and requires of them to do they are in a damnable Estate because thereby they virtually renounce one Fundamental Article of Faith viz. of the Authority and Unity of the Catholick Church And therefore if they break Communion though but for one Doctrin and that of it self of no great importance their Orthodoxness in all other Points will not avail them wanting Truth and especially renouncing Charity and Obedience to the Universal Church Hereupon the same Father in Psal. 54. saith of the Donatists We have each of us one Baptism in This they were with me We celebrated the Feasts of the Martyrs in This they were with me We frequented the Solemnity of Easter in This they were with me But they were not in All Things with me In Schism they were not with me In Heresie they were not with me In many Things they were with me and in some few Things they were not with me But in those few Things in which they were not with me those many Things do not profit them in which they were with me So again the same Father speaking to the same Donatists Epist. 48. saith You are with us in Baptism in the Creed and in other Sacraments of the Lord But in the spirit of Unity in the bond of Peace and finally in the Catholick Church you are not with us To the same purpose writeth St. Cyprian in his Book De Unitate Ecclesiae One Church saith he the Holy Ghost in the Person of our Lord designeth and saith One is my Dove This Unity of the Church he that holdeth not doth he think that he holdeth the Faith He that withstandeth and resisteth the Church He that forsaketh Peters Chair upon which the Church was built doth he trust that he is in the Church When the Blessed Apostle St. Paul also sheweth this Sacrament of Unity saying One Body and one Spirit Ephes. 4. 4. Which Unity we Bishops especially that Rule in the Church ought to hold fast and maintain that we may prove the Bishoply Function also it self to be one and undivided And again in one of his Epistles Epist. 40. There is one God and one Christ and one Church and one Chair by our Lord's Voice founded upon Peter Another Altar to be set up or a new Priesthood to be made besides one Altar and one Priesthood is impossible Whosoever gathereth elsewhere scattereth It is adulterous it is impious it is sacrilegious whatsoever is instituted by mans Fury to the breach of God's Divine Disposition Get ye far from the contagion of such men and fly from their speeches as from a canker and pestilence Our Lord having premonished and warned us beforehand saying they are Blind leaders of the Blind Matt. 15. 14. St. Hilary likewise Libro ad Constant. August thus applieth this same place of the Apostle Ephes. 4. 4 5. against the Arians as we may do against the Calvinists Perillous and miserable it is saith he that there are now so many Faiths as Wills and so many Doctrins as manners whiles either Faiths are so written as we will or as we will so are understood And whereas according to one God and one Lord and one Baptism there is also one Faith we fall away from that which is the only Faith and whiles more Faiths be made they begin to come to that that there is none at all Noah's Ark is an acknowledged Type of the Church as it appears by St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. Wherefore as All perished Temporally by the Deluge that were not in the Ark so all perished Eternally who are out of the Church Witness St. Cyprian whose words are these Cyprian lib de Unitat. Ecclesiae Whosoever separates himself from the Church is separated from the Promises of Christ. Whosoever forsakes the Church is an Alien an Enemy a prophane Person He cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his Mother Could any escape drowning being out of the Ark So neither shall any one escape Damnation out of the Church They cannot abide with God who refuse to continue with one accord in his Church Though they be cast into the Fire and burnt though they be devoured by wild Beasts c. yet shall not that be any Crown of their Faith but a punishment of their perfidiousness Such an one may be killed he shall
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-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
Patriarchal Councils yea of Oecumenical Synods are called into Examination All their Laws so far as to them seemed meet reformed the whole regard that England had to all other Catholick Churches as a Member of the whole is utterly broken by one National Church Nay not so much By one Luxurious King By one Child and by one Woman Even when the whole Body of the Clergy protested against it Let the world now be judge Whether this Action can be justified Thus of the Schism of the Church of England CHAP. VII The Assertions of some Protestants concerning church-Church-Authority And of some of them concerning the Dignity and Authority of the Church of Rome SChism and Heresie being here so evidently demonstrated to consist in denying Obedience to church-Church-Authority it may seem strange to find any Protestants so much to their own condemnation to write any thing in defence of such Church-Authority and particularly of the Authority of the Church of Rome from which they have separated totally casting off all obedience to it But yet this they have done as will appear by these following Testimonies of some very Eminent amongst them See Sir Edwyn Sands in his Europae Speculum Numb 12. where he has this following Discourse of the Security in submitting to the Authority of the Church of Rome Which although he delivers in the Person of a Catholick yet it is without Reply or seeking to deny the Truth of any thing here said The Discourse then is this SInce Christianity is a Doctrin of Faith a Doctrin whereof all Men are capable as being in gross and in general to be believed by all and since the high Vertue of Faith is in the Humility of the Understanding and the Merit thereof in the readiness of Obedience to Embrace it and withal since of outward proofs of our Faith where the true sense of Scripture is disputed the Churches Testimony whether for declaring to us the sense of Scripture or the judgments of the Ancients is a proof of most weight What madness were it for any man to tire out his Soul and to wast away his Spirits in tracing out all the thorny paths of the Controversies of these days wherein to err is no less easie than dangerous what through forgery of Authors abusing him what through sophistry beguiling him what through passion and prejudice transporting him and not rather betake himself to the right path of Truth whereunto God Nature Reason and Experience do all give witness And that is to associate himself to the Church whereunto the custody of this Heavenly and supernatural Truth hath been from Heaven it self committed To weigh discreetly which is the true Church and that being once found to receive faithfully and obediently without doubt or discussion whatsoever it delivers Now to discover this let him reflect that besides the Roman Church and such others as are United with it he finds all other Churches to have had their end or decay long since or their beginning but of late This Church was founded by the Prince of the Apostles with a promise to him from Christ That Hell Gates should never prevail against it Matt. 16. 18. And that himself would be assistant to it to the Consummation of the World It hath now continued Sixteen hundred years with an Honorable and certain Line of near Two hundred and forty Popes Successors of St. Peter both Tyrants Traytors Pagans and Hereticks in vain wresting raging and undermining it All the Lawful general Councils that ever were in the World have from time to time approved and honored it God hath so miraculously blessed it from above that many Learned and wise Doctors have enriched it with their Writings Armies of Saints with their Holiness and Virtues Armies of Martyrs with their Blood and of Virgins with their Purity have sanctified and embellished it And even at this day in such difficulties of unjust Rebellions and unnatural Revolts of her nearest Children yet she stretcheth out her arms to the utmost corners of the World newly embracing whole Nations into her bosom Lastly in all other opposite Churches there are found inward dissensions and contrarieties change of opinions uncertainty of resolutions with robbing of Churches rebelling against Governors confusion of Order Whereas contrariwise in this Church there is the Unity undivided the resolutions unaltered the most heavenly Order reaching from the hight of all Power to the lowest of all Subjection all with admirable Harmony and undefective correspondence bending the same way to the effecting of the same work all which do promise no other than a continual encrease and victory Wherefore let no Man doubt to submit himself to this glorious Spouse of Christ. This then being accorded to be the true Church of God it follows that she be reverently obeyed in all things without further inquisition she having the warrant that he that hears her hears Christ and whosoever hears her not hath no better place with God than a Publican or Pagan And what folly were it to receive Scriptures upon the credit of her Authority and not to receive the interpretation of them upon her Authority also and credit And if God should not always protect his Church from Error and yet peremptorily command Men always to obey her then had he made very slender provision for the Salvation of Mankind which conceit concerning God whose care of us even in all things touching this transitory Life is so plain and evident would render us very ungratefully impious And hard were the case and mean had his regard been of the vulgar People whose wants and difficulties in this life and whose capacities will not suffice to sound the deep and hidden Mysteries of Divinity and to search the truth of intricate Controversies if there were not others whose Authority they might safely follow and rely upon Blessed are they who believe and have not seen Joh. 20. 29. The merit of whose Religious Humility and Obedience exceeds perhaps in honor and acceptation before God the subtle and profound knowledge of many others Thus Sir Edwyn Sands To the same purpose Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Treatise of the Liberty of Prophesying These following Considerations says he may very easily perswade persons of much reason and more Piety to maintain that which they know to have been the Religion of their Fore-fathers which had actual possession and seizure of Mens minds and understandings before the opposite Professions had a name As first its Doctrin having had a long continuance and possession of the Church Which therefore cannot easily be supposed in the present professors to be a design since they have received it from so many Ages And it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes or that the same Doctrin should serve the several ends of divers Ages Secondly its long prescription which is such an advantage that it cannot with many Arguments be retrenched as relying upon these grounds to wit that Truth is more Ancient than Falshood and that God would not
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
never be crowned Thus St. Cyprian Now concerning the Supereminent Power of Bishops in the Church as to the Excommunication of Hereticks and of the effect thereof St. Jerom Epist. ad Heliodorum cap. 7. has these remarkable words God forbid saith he I should speak sinistrously of them who succeeding the Apostles in degree make Christ's Body with their holy mouths by whom we are made Christians who having the Keys of Heaven do after a sort judge before the day of Judgment who in sobriety and chastity have the keeping of the Spouse of Christ to wit his Church And a little after They may deliver me up to Satan to the destruction of my Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus And in the old Law whosoever was disobedient to the Priests was either cast out of the Camp and so stoned of the People or laying down his neck to the Sword expiated his offence by his Blood But now the Disobedient is cut off with the spiritual Sword or being cast out of the Church is torn by the furious mouth of Devils Thus St. Jerom. The Church's Practice in this is taken from the Example of St. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 19. where having exhorted Timothy to preserve his Faith and a good Conscience he presently adds Which certain repelling have made shipwrack about the Faith that is of their Faith of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme Now to prevent our being Seduced by Hereticks St. Paul says 2 Tim. 3. 1. And this know you that in the last days shall approach perillous times and Men shall be lovers of themselves covetous haughty proud blasphemous not obedient to their Parents unkind wicked without affection without peace accusers incontinent unmerciful without benignity traytors stubborn puffed up and lovers of voluptuousness more than of God having an appearance indeed of Piety but denying the vertue thereof and these avoid For these be they that craftily enter into houses and lead captive silly Women laden with sins which are led with divers desires always learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth But as Jannus and Jambres resisted Moses so these also resist the Truth men corrupted in mind reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall prosper no further For their folly shall be manifest to all as theirs also was All these words St. Cyprian Epist. 55. Num. 3. Expounds of such as by pride and disobedience resist God's Priests Let no faithful man saith he that keepeth in mind our Lords and the Apostles Admonition marvel if he see in the latter times some proud and stubborn fellows and the Enemies of God's Priests go out of the Church or impugn the same when both our Lord and the Apostle foretold us that such should be Now one Reason why the going out of the Church by Heresie is so great a crime is because the Church is always preserved from Error by the priviledge of Christ's Presence of the Holy Ghosts Assistance of our Lords Promise and Prayer of which see St. Augustin upon those words of the 118 Psalm Conc. 13. Ne auferas de ore meo verbum veritatis usque quâque Where he writes admirably of this matter To the same purpose also these words of Lactantius are very remarkable It is the Catholick Church only that keeps the true Worship of God This is the Fountain of Truth This is the House of Faith This is the Temple of God into which if a Man enter not or from which if any Man goes out he is an Alien and Stranger from the hope of everlasting life and salvation No Man must by obstinate contention flatter himself for it stands upon Life and Salvation St. Cyprian Epist. 55. ad Cornel. Num. 3. says The Church never departs from that which she once hath known And St. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 3. That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as in a rich Treasury all Truth It were an infinite labour to recite all that the Fathers say of this matter All counting it a most pernicious absurdity to affirm That the Church of Christ may err in Doctrins of Faith St. John the Apostle 1 John 2. 18. says Little Children it is the last hour and as ye have heard that Antichrist comes now there are become many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last hour They went out from us but they were not of us St. Cyprian upon this place writes thus Epist. 76. Num. 1. ad Magnum The holy Apostle St. John did not put a difference betwixt one Heresie or Schism and another nor meant any sort that especially separated themselves but generally called All without exception Antichrists that were adversaries to the Church or were gone out from the same And a little after It is evident that All be here called Antichrists that have severed themselves from the Charity and Unity of the Catholick Church Concerning St. Peter's Supremacy or Charge of the whole Church from which Hereticks separate themselves St. Cyprian writes thus Lib. de Unitat. Ecclesiae To Peter saith he our Lord after his Resurrection said Feed my Sheep and built his Church upon him alone and to him he gives the charge of Feeding his Sheep For although after his Resurrection he gave his Power alike to all saying As my Father sent me so I send you Receive the Holy Ghost If you remit to any their sins they shall be remitted c. Yet to manifest Unity he constituted one Chair and so disposed by his Authority that Unity should have origin of one The rest of the Apostles were that which Peter was in equal Fellowship of Honor and Power but the beginning comes of Unity the Primacy is given to Peter that the Church of Christ may be shewed to be one and one Chair St. Chrysostom also says thus Lib. 2. de Sacerdot Why did our Lord shed his Blood Truly to redeem those Sheep the Cure of which he committed both to Peter and also to his Successors And a little after Christ would have Peter endowed with such Authority and to be far above all his other Apostles For he saith Peter Dost thou love me more than all These do Whereupon our Master might have inferred If you love me Peter use much Fasting Sleep on the hard Floor Watch much be a Patron to the Oppressed a Father to Orphans and Husband to Widows But omitting all These things he says Feed my Sheep For all the other Vertues certainly may be done easily by many Subjects not only Men but also Women but when it cometh to the Government of the Church and committing the charge of many Souls all Women-kind must needs give place to the burden and greatness thereof and a great number of Men also St. Gregory likewise Lib. 4. Epist. 76 writes thus It is plain to all men saith he that ever read the Gospel that by our Lord's mouth the charge of the whole Church
was committed to St. Peter Prince of the Apostles For unto him it was said Feed my Sheep For him was the Prayer made that his Faith should not fail To him were the Keys of Heaven given and Authority to bind and loose To him the Cure of the Church and Principality was delivered And yet he was not called the Universal Apostle This Title indeed was offered for the honor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles to the Pope of Rome by the holy Council of Chalcedon but none of that See did ever use it or consent to take it Thus St. Gregory St. Paul ad Corinth 1. 2. 15. says The Spiritual man judgeth all things Annotations St. Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 6. excellently declaring That the Church and every Spiritual Child thereof judges and condemns all false Prophets and Hereticks of what sort soever At length concludes with these remarkable words The Spiritual man shall judge also all that make Schisms who are cruel not having the love of God and who respecting more their own private to wit Interest than the Unity of the Church mangle divide and as much as in them lies kill for small causes the great and glorious Body of Christ to wit his Church Speaking Peace and seeking Battel He to wit the Spiritual man shall judge likewise such as be out of the Truth that is to say out of the Church Which Church shall be under no man's judgment for to the Church are all things known in which is perfect Faith of the Father and of all the Dispensation of Christ and firm knowledge of the Holy Ghost that teacheth all Truth It is said Acts 11. 26. That the Disciples were at Antioch first named Christians Annotations This name Christian ought to be common to all the Faithful and other new Names of Schismaticks and Sectaries must be abhorred If you hear Saith St. Hierom contr Lucif cap. 7. in fine any where such as be said to be of Christ not to have their Names of our Lord Jesus Christ but to be called after some other certain Name as Marcionites Valentinians as now also the Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. know you that they belong not to the Church of Christ but to the Synagogue of Antichrist Lanctantius also lib. 7. Divinarum Institution cap. 30. saith thus When Phrygians or Novatians or Valentinians or Marcionites or Anthropomorphites or Arians or any other to wit such Sects be named they cease to be Christians Who having left the Name of Christ have assumed the Names of Men. Neither can our now Sectaries help or excuse themselves by objecting That we are called Papists For besides that it is by them scornfully invented as the name Homousians was by the Arians This Name is not of any one Man Bishop of Rome or elsewhere known to be the Author of any Schism or Sect as their callings be but it is of a whole State and order of Governors and that of the chief Governors to whom we are bound to cleave in Religion and to obey in all things concerning it So that to be a Papist is to be a Christian a Child of the Church and a Subject of Christ's Vicar And therefore against such impudent Sectaries as compare the Faithful for following the Pope to the diversity of Hereticks bearing the names of new Masters let us ever have in readiness this saying of St. Hierom writing to Pope Damasus Hierom Epist. ad Damasum Vitalis I know not Miletius I refuse I know not Paulinus Whosoever gathereth not with you scattereth That is to say Whosoever is not Christs is Antichrists And again If any man joyns with Peter's Chair he is mine that is he is of one Faith with me It is here further to be observed That this name Christian given to all Believers and the whole Church was especially taken to distinguish them from Jews and Heathens which believed not at all in Christ And the same now likewise severeth and makes Christians known from Turks and others who believe nothing of the Divinity of Christ. But when Hereticks began to rise up among Christians which Hereticks professed Christs Name and sundry Articles of Faith as true Believers do then the name of Christian was too common to distinguish such Hereticks and make them known from true Believers who were entirely sound in their Faith And therefore to distinguish these from such true and faithful Believers of All Doctrines of Christian Faith the Apostles inspired by the Holy Ghost put into the Creed the name Catholick which is as much as to say A true and faithful Believer of all Christian Doctrin And by this it appears evidently That no Heretick is a Catholick although they falsely pretend to it when they are prâ—…ssed with this Article of the Creed To confirm what hath been here said St. Pacianus Epist. ad Sympherianum writes thus When Heresies were risen and endeavoured by divers Names to tear the Dove of God and Queen to wit the Church and to rent her in pieces the Apostolical People reqired their Sir-name whereby the uncorrupt People might be distinguished c. and so those that before were called Christians are now Sirnamed Catholicks Christian is my Name saith he Catholick my Sirname And thus the word Catholick is a proper note by which the Apostles in their Creed taught us to discern the true Church from the false Heretical Congregations of all sorts of Hereticks And not only the meaning of the word which signifies Universality of Times Places and Persons but likewise the very name and word it self by God's Providence has been always and only appropriated to True Believers And though sometimes at the beginning or first rising up of Sects challenged by them yet never obtained by Hereticks as their constant Name Wherefore St. Augustin sayes In the lap of the Church the very name of Catholick keeps me Aug. contr Epist. Fundament cap. 4. And again Tract 32. in Joan. We receive the Holy Ghost if we love the Church if we be joyned together by Charity if we rejoyce in the Catholick Name and Faith And again Tom. 1. libr. de verâ Religione cap. 7. We must hold the Communion of the Church which is named Catholick not only of her own but also of all her Enemies For will they nill they the Hereticks also and Schismaticks themselves when they speak not with their own Fellows but with Strangers call the Catholick Church nothing else but the Catholick Church For they would not be understood unless they discerned it that is expressed it by this Name by which she is called of all the World Thus far of the Testimonies of the Fathers concerning Schisms CHAP. IV. The Reason of this great Severity of both Scriptures and Fathers against Heresie and Schism NOw the reason of this great Severity of the Fathers excluding all from any hope of Salvation that are divided from the Unity of the Church by Schism or Heresie is manifested by St. Augustin in a Discourse of his upon those