Recorder of London told the Earl of Leicester the secret of this in Queen Elizabeth's Time who writ down his Discourse and from thence I have copied it There was one that had been Cromwell's Servant and much employed by him in the suppression of Monasteries he was a Man of great Notions but very busy and factious so having been a great stickler for the Lady Jane he was put in the Fleet upon the Queen's first coming to the Crown yet within a month he was discharged but upon the last Rising was again put up and indicted of High Treason He had great Friends and made application to one of the Emperor's Ambassadors that was then the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Milan and by his means he obtained his Liberty Being brought to him he shewed him a new Plat-form of Government which he had contrived for the Queen She was to declare her self a Conqueror or that she having succeeded to the Crown by Common Law was not at all to be limited by the Statute Laws since those were only restrictions upon the Kings but not on the Queens of England and that therefore all those Limitations of the Prerogative were only binding in the Persons of Kings but she was free from them Upon this he shewed how she might establish Religion set up the Monasteries raise her Friends and ruin her Enemies and Rule according to her Pleasure The Ambassador carried this to the Queen and seemed much pleased with it but desired her to read it carefully and keep it as a great Secret As she read it she disliked it and judged it contrary to the Oath she had made at her Coronation and thereupon sent for Gardiner and charged him as he would answer before the Judgment-Seat of God at the general Day of the Holy Doom that he would consider the Book carefully and bring her his Opinion of it next day which fell to be Maundy Thursday So as the Queen came from her Maundy he waited on her into her Closet and said these words My good and most gracious Lady I intend not to pray your Highness with any humble Petitions to name the Devisers of this new invented Plat-form but here I say That it is pity that so noble and vertuous a Lady should be endangered with the pernicious Devices of such lewd and subtil Sycophants for the Book is naught and most horrible to be thought on Upon this the Queen thanked him and threw the Book into the Fire and charged the Ambassador that neither he nor any of his Company should receive more such Projects from any of her People This made Gardiner apprehended that if the Spaniards began so soon to put such Notions into the Queen's Head they might afterwards when she was in their Hands make somewhat of them and therefore to prevent such Designs for the future he drew the Act in which though he seemed to do it as an Advantage to the Queen for the putting of her Title beyond dispute yet he really intended nothing by it but that she should be restrained by all those Laws that the former Kings of England had consented to And because King Henry the Seventh though his best right to the Crown flowed from his Marriage to the Heir of the House of York had yet taken the Government wholly into his own hands he fearing lest the Spaniards should pretend to such a Power by the Authority which Marriage gives the Husband over the Wife got the Articles of the Marriage to be ratified in Parliament by which they not only confirmed those agreed on but made a more full explanation of that part of them which declared the entire Government of the Kingdom to belong only to the Queen To this the Spaniards gave too great an occasion Great Jealousies of the Spanish Power by publishing King Philip's Pedigree whom they derived from John of Gaunt They said this was only done to conciliate the favour of the Nation by representing him not a stranger but a Native But this gave great offence concerning which I have seen a little Book that vvas then printed It was there said That King Henry the Seventh came in pretending only to marry the Heir of the House of York But he was no sooner on the Throne than he declared his own Title and kept it his whole Life So it vvas said the Spaniard vvould call himself Heir of the House of Lancaster and upon that Pretension would easily wrest the Power out of the Queen's hands who seemed to mind nothing but her Devotions This made Gardiner look the better to the securing of the Liberties of the Crown and Nation so that it must be acknowledged that the preserving of England out of the hands of the Spaniards at that time seems to be almost vvholly owing to him In this Parliament the Marquess of Northampton vvas restored in Blood And the Act for restoring the Bishoprick of Duresm The Bishoprick of Duresm restored not having gone through the last Parliament vvhen it vvas dissolved vvas now brought in again The Town of Newcastle opposed it much vvhen it came down to the Commons But the Bishop of Duresm came to them on the 18th of April and gave them a long account of all his Troubles from the Duke of Northumberland and desired that they would dispatch his Bill There vvere many Proviso's put into it for some that vvere concerned in Gateside but it vvas carried in the House That instead of these Proviso's they should send a Desire to him recommending those Persons to his Favour So upon a Division there vvere 120 against it and 201 for it After this came the Bill confirming the Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and fifty eight more vvho vvere attainted for the late Rebellion The Lords put in a Proviso excepting Entailed Lands out of their Forfeitures but the Commons rejected the Proviso and passed the Bill Then did the Commons send up a Bill for reviving the Statutes made against Lollardy vvhich being read twice by the Lords vvas laid aside The Commons intended next to have revived the Statute of the Six Articles but it did not agree vvith the Design at Court to take any notice of King Henry's Acts so this vvas let fall Then they brought in another Bill to extirpate Erroneous Opinions and Books but that vvas at the third reading laid aside After that they passed a particular Bill against Lollardy in some Points as the eating of flesh in Lent but that also being sent up to the Lords was at the third reading laid aside by the major part of the House so forward were the Commons to please the Queen or such Operation had the Spanish Gold on them that they contrived four Bills in one Session for the prosecution of those they called Hereticks But to give some content on the other hand they passed a Bill that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other should have any Power to Convene or trouble any for possessing Abbey Lands This was sent up to
Objection of great force from the Acts pass'd in the 21st Year of Richard the second 's Reign In the second Act of that Parliament it is said That it was first prayed by the Commons and that the Lords Spiritual and the Proctors of the Clergy did assent to it upon which the King by the assent of all the Lords and Commons did enact it The 12th Act of that Parliament was a Repeal of the whole Parliament that was held in the 11th Year of that Reign and concerning it it is expressed That the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Proctors of the Clergy and the Commons being severally examined did all agree to it From hence it appears that these Proctors were then not only a part of the Parliament but were a distinct Body of Men that did severally from all the rest deliver their Opinions It may seem strange that if they were then considered as a part of either House of Parliament this should be the only time in which they should be mentioned as bearing their share in the Legislative Power In a matter that is so perplexed and dark I shall presume to offer a Conjecture which will not appear perhaps improbable In the 129th Page of the former part I gave the Reasons that made me think the lower House of Convocation consisted at first only of the Proctors of the Clergy So that by the Proctors of the Clergy both in the Statute of Ireland and in those made by Richard the second is perhaps to be understood the lower House of Convocation and it is not unreasonable to think that upon so great an occasion as the annulling a whole Parliament to make it pass the better in an Age in which the People payed so blind a Submission to the Clergy the concurrence of the whole Representative of the Church might have been thought necessary It is generally believed that the whole Parliament sate together in one House before Edward the thirds time and then the Inferior Clergy were a part of that Body without question But when the Lords and Commons sate a-part the Clergy likewise sate in two Houses and granted Subsidies as well as the Temporalty It may pass for no unlikely conjecture that the Clause Premonentes was first put in the Bishops Writ for the summoning of the lower House of Convocation consisting of these Proctors and afterwards though there was a special Writ for the Convocation yet this might at first have been continued in the Bishops Writ by the neglect of a Clark and from thence be still used So that it seems to me most probable that the Proctors of the Clergy were both in England and Ireland the lower House of Convocation Now before the Submission which the Clergy made to King Henry as the Convocation gave the King great Subsidies so the whole business of Religion lay within their Sphere But after the Submission they were cut off from medling with it except as they were authorized by the King So that having now so little power left them it is no wonder they desired to be put in the state they had been in before the Convocation was separated from the Parliament or at least that Matters of Religion should not be determined till they had been consulted and had reported their Opinions and Reasons The Extreme of raising the Ecclesiastical Power too high in the Times of Popery had now produced another of depressing it too much For seldom is the Counterpoise so justly ballanced that Extremes are reduced to a well-tempered Mediocrity For the third Petition it was resolved that many Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to labour in the Matter of the Church-Service But that required so much consideration that they could not enter on it during a Session of Parliament And for the fourth what Answer was given to it doth not appear On the 29th of November a Declaration was sent down from the Bishops concerning the Sacraments being to be received in both kinds To which Jo. Tyler the Prolocutor and several others set their Hands and being again brought before them it was agreed to by all without a contradictory Vote 64 being present among whom I find Polidore Virgil was one And on the 17th of December the Proposition concerning the Marriage of the Clergy was also sent to them and subscribed by 35 affirmatively and by 14 negatively so it was ordered that a Bill should be drawn concerning it I shall not here digress to give an account of what was alledged for or against this reserving that to its proper place when the thing was finally setled And this is all the account I could recover of this Convocation I have chiefly gathered it from some Notes and other Papers of the then Dr. Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury which are carefully preserved with his other MSS. in Corpus Christi Colledge Library at Cambridge To which Library I had free access by the favour of the most learned Master Dr. Spencer with the other Worthy Fellows of that House and from thence I collected many remarkable things in this History The Parliament being brought to so good a Conclusion the Protector took out a new Commission in which all the Addition that is made to that Authority he formerly had is that in his absence he is empow'red to substitute another to whom he might delegate his Power The state of Affairs in Germany And thus this Year ended in England but as they were carrying on the Reformation here it was declining apace in Germany The Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave were this Year to command their Armies apart The Duke of Saxe kept within his own Country but having there unfortunately divided his Forces the Emperor overtook him near the Alb at Mulberg where the Emperors Soldiers crossing the River and pursuing him with great fury after some resistance in which he himself performed all that could be expected from so great a Captain was taken Prisoner 1547. Apr. 24. Duke of Saxe taken and his Country all possessed by Maurice who was now to be invested with the Electoral Dignity He bore his misfortunes with a greatness and equality of mind that is scarce to be parallel'd in History Neither could the insolence with which the Emperor treated him nor the fears of death to which he adjudged him nor that tedious imprisonment which he suffered so long ever shake or disorder a Mind that was raised so far above the inconstancies of Humane Affairs And though he was forced to submit to the hardest Conditions possible of renouncing his Dignity and Dominions some few Places being only reserved for his Family yet no Entreaties nor Fears could ever bring him to yield any thing in Matters of Religion He made the Bible his chief Companion and Comfort in his sharp Afflictions which he bore so as if he had been raised up to that end to let the World see how much he was above it It seemed unimitable and therefore engaged Thuanus with the other
business which himself had so violently and servilely promoted The falsehood of that pretence of corrupting Vniversities has been shewn in the former Volumn but it was all they had now to say The laying it all upon Cranmer was as high a pitch of malice and impudence as could be devised for as Gardiner had been setting it on long before Cranmer was known to King Henry so he had been joyned with him in the Commission and had given his assent to the Sentence which Cranmer gave Nor was the Divorce grounded meerly upon Cranmers understanding of the Scriptures but upon the fullest and most studied Arguments that had perhaps been in any Age brought together in one particular case and both Houses of Convocation had condemned the Mariage before his sentence But because in the right of his See he was Legate to the Pope therefore to make the Sentence stronger it went only in his name though he had but a small share in it compared to what Gardiner had By this Act there was also a second Illegittimation brought on the Lady Elizabeth The Queens carries severely to the Lady Elizabeth to whom hitherto the Queen had been very kind using her on all occasions with the tenderness of a Sister but from this time forwards she handled her more severely It was perhaps occasioned by this Act since before they stood both equally illegittimated but now the Act that legitimated the Queen making her most certainly a Bastard in Law the Queen might think it now too much to use her as she had done formerly Others suggest a more secret reason of this distast The new Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour so that it was thought she had some inclinations to marry him but he either not presuming so high or really having an aversion to her and an inclination to her Sister who of that moderate share of beauty that was between them had much the better of her and was nineteen years younger made his Addresses with more than ordinary concern to the Lady Elizabeth and this did bring them both in trouble as shall be afterwards shewn The next Bill that was sent from the Lords to the Commons The Laws made by King Edward repealed was for the repealing King Edward's Laws about Religion It was sent down on the 31st of October and argued six days in the House of Commons but in the end it was carried and sent back to the Lords The Preamble of it sets forth the great disorders that had fallen out in the Nation by the changes that had been made in Religion from that which their Fore-fathers had left them by the Authority of the Catholick Church thereupon all the Laws that had been made in King Edwards time about Religion were now repealed and it was Enacted that from the 20th of December next there should be no other Form of Divine Service but what had been used in the last year King of Henry the 8th leaving it free to all till that day to use either the Books appointed by King Edward or the old ones at their pleasure Another Act was passed which the Commons sent up to the Lords An Act against the affronting Priests against all those who by any overt Act should molest or disquiet any Preacher because of his Office or for any Sermon that he might have Preached or should any way disturb them when they were in any part of the Divine Offices that either had been in the last year of King Henry or should be afterwards set forth by the Queen or should break or abuse the holy Sacrament or break Altars Crucifixes or Crosses those that did any of these things should be presented to the Justices of Peace and be by them put in Prison where they should lye three Months or till they were penitent for their Offences and if any rescued them they should be liable to the same punishment But to this a Proviso was added by the Lords that this Act should no way derogate from the Authority of the Ecclesiastiâ—â—l Laws and Courts who might likewise proceed upon such Offences and a Certificate from the Ordinaries that such Offenders were punished by them being brought to the Justices of Peace they were to proceed no further or if the Justices made a Certificate that they had punished them according to Law the Ordinary might not punish them a second time But the Commons were now so heated that they sent up another Bill to the Lords against those who came not to Church nor to Sacraments after the old Service should be again set up the inflicting of the Punishments in these cases being left to the Ecclesiastical Courts This fell in the House of Lords not so much from any opposition that was made as that they were afraid of allarming the Nation too much by many severe Laws at once An Act against unlawful Assemblies Another Law was made for securing the publick Peace against unlawful and rebellious Assemblies that if any to the number of twelve or above should meet to alter any thing of Religion established by Law and being required by any having the Queens Authority to disperse themselves should continue after that an hour together it should be Felony or if that number met to break Hedges or Parks to destroy Deer or Fish c. and did not disperse upon Proclamation it should be Felony or if any by ringing of Bells Drums or firing of Beacons gathered the People together and did the things before mentioned it was Felony if the Wives or Servants of Persons so gathered caried Meat Money or Weapons to them it should be Felony and if any above the number of two and within twelve should meet for these ends they should suffer a years imprisonment empowering the Sheriffs or Justices to gather the Country for the resistance of Persons so offending with Penalties on all between eighteen and sixty that being required to come out against them should refuse to do it When this Act was known the People then saw clearly how they had been deceived by the former Act that seemed so favourable repealing all Acts of new Treasons and Felonies since there was so soon after it an Act passed that renewed one of the severest Laws of the last Reign in which so many things that might flow from sudden heats were made Felonies and a great many new and severe Proviso's were added to it The Queens discharge of the Subsidy was confirmed by another Act. The Marquess of Northampton's 2d Marriage is annulled There followed two private Acts which occasioned more Debate than the publick ones had done The one was the repeal of the Act that had confirmed the Marquess of Northamptons Marriage It was much argued in the House of Commons and on the 28th of November it was agreed to It contains that the Act of confirming the Divorce and the second Marriage was procured more upon untrue surmises and private respects than for any publick good and increase
to meet and consider of the Book of Service In the mean while the People were to be restrained from Innovating without Authority and the Queen to give some hope of a Reformation might appoint the Communion to be given in both kinds The Persons that were thought fit to be trusted with the Secret of these Consultations were the Marquess of Northampton the Earls of Bedford and Pembroke and the Lord John Gray The Place that was thought most convenient for the Divines to meet in was Sir Thomas Smiths House in Channon-Row where an Allowance was to be given for their Entertainment The forwardness in many to the Reformation As soon as the News of the Queens coming to the Crown was known beyond Sea all those who had fled thither for shelter did return into England and those who had lived in Corners during the late Persecution now appeared with no small assurance and these having notice of the Queens Intentions could not contain themselves but in many Places begun to make Changes to set up King Edwards Service to pull down Images and to affront the Priests Upon this the Queen to make some discovery of her own Inclinations gave order that the Gospels and Epistles and the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and the Ten Commandements should be read in English and that the Letany should be also used in English and she forbade the Priests to Elevate the Host at Mass Having done this on the 27th of December she set out a Proclamation against all Innovations requiring her Subjects to use no other Forms of Worship than those she had in her Chappel till it should be otherwise appointed by the Parliament which she had summoned to meet on the 23d of January The Writs were issued out by Bacon into whose Hands she had delivered the Great Seal On the fifth of December she performed her Sisters Funeral Rites with great Magnificence at Westminster The Bishop of Winchester being appointed to preach the Sermon did so mightily extoll her and her Government and so severely taxed the disorders which he thought the Innovators were guilty of not without reflections on the Queen that he was thereupon confined to his House till the Parliament met Parker designed to be Archbishop of Canterbury One of the chief things under consultation was to provide Men fit to be put into the Sees that were now vacant or that might fall to be so afterwards if the Bishops should continue intractable Those now vacant were the Sees of Canterbury Hereford Bristol and Bangor and in the beginning of the next Year the Bishops of Norwich and Glocester died so that as Cambden hath it there were but fourteen Bishops living when the Parliament met It was of great importance to find Men able to serve in these Imployments chiefly in the See of Canterbury For this Dr. Parker was soon thought on Whether others had the offer of it before him or not I cannot tell but he was writ to by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the ninth of December to come up to London and afterwards on the 30th of December by Sir William Cecil and again by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the fourth of January He understood that it was for some high preferment and being a Man of an humble Temper distrustful of himself that loved privacy and was much disabled by sickness he declined coming up all he could he begged he might not be thought of for any publick Imployment but that some Prebend might be assigned him where he might be free both from Care and Government since the Infirmities which he had contracted by his flying about in the Nights in Queen Maries time had disabled him from a more publick station That to which he pretended shews how moderate his desires were for he professed an Imployment of twenty Nobles a year would be more acceptable to him than one of two hundred Pound He had been Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen and had received a special charge from her a little before she died to look well to the Instruction of her Daughter in the Principles of the Christian Religion and now the Queen had a grateful Remembrance of those Services This joyned with the high Esteem that Sir Nicholas Bacon had of him soon made her resolve to raise him to that great Dignity And since such high Preferments are generally if not greedily sought after yet very willingly undertaken by most Men it will be no unfit thing to lay open a modern Precedent which indeed savours more of the Ancient than the latter Times for then in stead of that Ambitus which has given such offence to the World in the latter Ages it was ordinary for Men to fly from the offer of great Preferments Some run away when they understood they were to be Ordained or had been Elected to great Sees and fled to a Wilderness This shewed they had a great sense of the Care of Souls and were more apprehensive of that weighty Charge than desirous to raise or enrich themselves or their Families It hath been shewed before that Cranmer was very unwillingly engaged in the See of Canterbury and now he that succeeded him in that See with the same designs was drawn into it with such unwillingness that it was almost a whole year before he could be prevailed upon to accept of it The account of this will appear in the Series of Letters both written to him and by him on that Head which were communicated to me by the present most Worthy and most Reverend Primate of this Church I cannot mention him in this place without taking notice that as in his other great Vertues and Learning he has gone in the steps of those most eminent Arch-bishops that went before him so the whole Nation is witness how far he was from aspiring to high Preferment how he withdrew from all those opportunities that might be steps to it how much he was surprized with his unlooked-for advancement how unwillingly he was raised and how humble and affable he continues in that high Station he is now in but this is a Subject that I must leave for them to enlarge on that shall write the History of this present Age. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper In the beginning of the next Year the Queen having found that Heath Arch-bishop of York then Lord Chancellor would not go along with her as he had done in the Reigns of her Father and Brother and having therefore taken the Seals from him and put them into Sir Nicholas Bacon's Hand did now by Patent create him Lord Keeper Formerly those that were Keepers of the Seal had no Dignity nor Authority annexed to their Office they did not hear Causes nor preside in the House of Lords but were only to put the Seals to such Writs or Patents as went in course and so it was only put in the Hands of a Keeper but for some short Interval But now Bacon was the first Lord Keeper that had all the Dignity and Authority of
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
the Stream to sink it but or ere it sunk it came near to one Bank where the Bulloners took it out and brought the Stones to reinforce the Peer Also at Guines was a certain Skirmish in which there was about an 100 Frenchmen slain of which some were Gentlemen and Noblemen In the mean season in England rose great Stirs like to increase much if it had not been well foreseen The Council about nineteen of them were gathered in London thinking to meet with the Lord Protector and to make him amend some of his Disorders He fearing his state caused the Secretary in My Name to be sent to the Lords to know for what Cause they gathered their Powers together and if they meant to talk with him that they should come in a peaceable manner The next morning being the 6th of October and Saturday he commanded the Armour to be brought down out of the Armoury of Hampton-Court about 500 Harnesses to Arm both his and My Men with all the Gates of the House to be Rampeir'd People to be raised People came abundantly to the House That night with all the People at nine or ten of the Clock of the night I went to Windsor and there was Watch and Ward kept every night The Lords sat in open Places of London calling for Gentlemen before them and declaring the Causes of Accusation of the Lord Protector and caused the same to be proclaimed After which time few came to Windsor but only Mine own Men of the Guard whom the Lords willed fearing the Rage of the People so lately quieted Then began the Protector to treat by Letters sending Sir Philip Hobbey lately come from his Ambassage in Flanders to see to his Family who brought in his return a Letter to the Protector very gentle which he delivered to him another to Me another to my House to declare his Faults Ambition Vain-Glory entring into rash Wars in my Youth negligent looking on New-Haven enriching of himself of my Treasure following of his own Opinion and doing all by his own Authority c. Which Letters were openly read and immediately the Lords came to Windsor took him and brought him through Holborn to the Tower Afterward I came to Hampton-Court where they appointed by My consent six Lords of the Council to be Attendant on Me at least two and four Knights Lords the Marquess of Northampton the Earls of Warwick and Arundel the Lords Russel St. John and Wentworth Knights Sir Andr. Dudley Sir Edw. Rogers Sir Tho. Darcy and Sir Tho. Wroth. After I came through London to Westminster The Lord of Warwick made Admiral of England Sir Thomas Cheiney sent to the Emperor for Relief which he could not obtain Master Wotton made Secretary The Lord Protector by his own Agreement and Submission lost his Protectorship Treasureship Marshalship all his Moveables and more 2000 l. Land by Act of Parliament The Earl of Arundel committed to his House for certain Crimes of suspicion against him as plucking down of Bolts and Locks at Westminster giving of My Stuff away c. and put to fine of 12000 l. to be paid 1000 l. Yearly of which he was after relieved Also Mr. Southwell committed to the Tower for certain Bills of Sedition written with his Hand and put to fine of 500 l. Likewise Sir Tho. Arundel and six then committed to the Tower for Conspiracies in the West Places A Parliament where was made a manner to Consecrate Priests Bishops and Deacons Mr. Paget surrendring his Comptrolership was made Lord Paget of Beaudesert and cited into the Higher House by a Writ of Parliament Sir Anthony Wingfield before Vicechamberlain made Comptroller Sir Thomas Darcy made Vicechamberlaine Guidotty made divers Errands from the Constable of France to make Peace with us upon which were appointed four Commissioners to Treat and they after long Debatement made a Treaty as followeth Anno 1549. Mart. 24. Peace concluded between England France and Scotland By our English side John Earl of Bedford Lord Privy Seal Lord Paget de Beaudesert Sir William Petre Secretary and Sir John Mason On the French side Monsieur de Rochepot Monsieur Chastilion Guilluart de Mortier and Boucherel de Sany upon these Conditions That all Titles Tribute and Defences should remain That the Faults of one Man except he be punished should not break the League That the Ships of Merchandize shall pass to and fro That Pirats shall be called back and Ships of War That Prisoners shall be delivered of both sides That we shall not War with Scotland That Bollein with the pieces of New Conquest and two Basilisks two Demy-Cannons three Culverines two Demy-Culverins three Sacres six Faulcons 94 Hagbutts a Crook with Wooden Tailes and 21 Iron Pieces and Lauder and Dunglass with all the Ordnance save that that came from Haddington shall within six months after this Peace proclaimed be delivered and for that the French to pay 200000 Scutes within three days after the delivery of Bollein and 200000 Scutes on our Lady Day in Harvest next ensuing and that if the Scots raizd Lauder and we should raze Roxburg and Heymouth For the performance of which on the 7th of April should be delivered at Guisnes and Ardres these Hostages Marquess de Means Monsieur Trimoville Monsieur D'anguien Monsieur Montmorency Monsieur Henandiere Vicedam de Chartres My Lord of Suffolk My Lord of Hartford My Lord Talbot My Lord Fitzwarren My Lord Martavers My Lord Strange Also that at the delivery of the Town Ours should come home and at the first Payment three of theirs and that if the Scots raze Lauder and Dunglass We must raze Roxburgh and Heymouth and none after fortify them with comprehension of the Emperor 25. This Peace Anno 1550 proclaimed at Calais and Bollein 29. In London Bonefires 30. A Sermon in Thanksgiving for Peace and Te Deum sung 31. My Lord Somerset was delivered of his Bonds and came to Court April 2. The Parliament prorogued to the second day of the Term in October ensuing 3. Nicholas Ridley before of Rochester made Bishop of London and received his Oath Thomas Thirlby before of Westminster made Bishop of Norwich and received his Oath 4. The Bishop of Chichester before a vehement affirmer of Transubstantiation did preach against it at Westminster in the preaching place Removing to Greenwich from Westminster 6. Our Hostages passed the Narrow Seas between Dover and Calais 7. Monsieur de Fermin Gentleman of the King 's Privy Chamber passed from the French King by England to the Scotch Queen to tell her of the Peace An Ambassador came from Gustave the Swedish King called Andrew for a surer Amity touching Merchandize 9. The Hostages delivered on both the sides for the Ratification of the League with France and Scotland for because some said to Monsieur Rochfort Lieutenant that Monsieur de Guise Father to the Marquess of Means was dead and therefore the delivery was put over a day 8. My Lord Warwick made General Warden of
or any of them shall be found as well in Printers Houses and Shops as elsewhere willing you and every of you to search for the same in all Places according to your discretions And also to enquire hear and determine all and singular Enormities Disturbances Misbehaviours Misdemeanours and Negligences done suffered or committed in any Church Chappel or other hallowed Place within this Realm And also for and concerning the taking away or the with-holding of any Lands Tenements Goods and Ornaments Stocks of Mony or other things belonging to any of the same Churches and Chappels and all Accompts and Reckonings concerning the same And also to enquire and search out all such Persons as obstinately do refuse to preach the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar to hear Mass or come to their Parish or other convenient Places appointed for Divine Service and all such as refuse to go in Processions to take Holy Water or Holy Bread or otherwise do misuse themselves in any Church or other Hallowed Place wheresoever any of the same Offences have been or hereafter shall be committed within this Our said Realm Nevertheless Our Will and Pleasure is That when and as often as any Person or Persons hereafter to be called or convented before you do obstinately persist or stand in any manner of Heresy or heretical Opinions that then ye or three of you do immediately take order that the same Person or Persons so standing or persisting be delivered and committed to his Ordinary there to be used according to the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Laws And also We give unto you or three of you full Power and Authority to enquire and search out all Vagabonds and Masterless Men Barretors Quarrellers and suspect Persons Vagrant or abiding within the City of London or ten miles compass of the same and all Assaults and Affrays done and committed within the same City and Compass And further to search out all Wastes Decays and Ruines of Churches Chancels Chappels Parsonages and Vicarages in whatsoever Diocess the same be within this Realm Giving to you or any three of you full Power and Authority by virtue hereof to hear and determine the same and all other Offences and Matters above specified and rehearsed according to your Wisdoms and Consciences and Discretions willing and commanding you or three of you from time to time to use and devise all such politic ways and means for the trial and searching out of the Premises as by you or three of you shall be thought most expedient and necessary and upon enquiry and due proof had known perceived and tried out by the Confession of the Parties or by sufficient Witnesses before you or three of you concerning the Premises or any part thereof or by any other ways or means requisite to give and award such punishment to the Offenders by Fine Imprisonment or otherwise and to take such order for redress and reformation of the Premises as to your Wisdoms or three of you shall be thought meet and convenient Further willing and commanding you and any three of you in case you shall find any Person or Persons obstinate or disobedient either in their appearance before you or three of you at your calling or assignment or else in not accomplishing or not obeying your Decrees Orders and Commandments in any thing or things touching the Premises or any part thereof to commit the same Person or Persons so offending to Ward there to remain till they be by you or three of you enlarged and delivered And We give to you and any three of you full Power and Authority by these Presents to take and receive by your Discretions of every Offender or suspect Person to be convented or brought before you a Recognizance or Recognizances Obligation or Obligations to Our use of such Sum or Sums of Mony as to you or three of you shall seem convenient as well for the personal appearance before you of any such suspect Person or for the performance and accomplishment of your Orders and Decrees in case you shall think so convenient as for the sure and true paiment of all and every such Fine and Fines as shall hereafter be by you or three of you taxed or assessed upon any Offender that shall be before you or three of you duly convinced as is aforesaid to Our use to be paid at such days and times as by you or three of you shall be sealed limited or appointed And you to certifie any such Recognizance or Obligation as being taken for any Fine or Fines not fully and wholly paid before you under your Hands and Seals or the Hands and Seals of three of you into Our Court of Chancery to the intent We may be thereof duy answered as appertaineth And furthermore We give to you or three of you full Power and Authority by these Presents not only to call afore you all and every Offender and Offenders and all and every suspect Person and Persons in any of the Premises but also all such and so many Witnesses as ye shall think meet to be called and them and every of them to examine and compel to Answer and Swear upon the Holy Evangelist to declare the Truth in all such things whereof they or any of them shall be examined for the better trial opening and declaration of the Premises or of any part thereof And furthermore Our Will and Pleasure is that you or three of you shall name and appoint one sufficient Person to gather up and receive all such Sums of Mony as shall be assessed or taxed by you or three of you for any Fine or Fines upon any Person or Persons for their Offence and you or three of you by Bill or Bills signed with your Hands shall and may assign and appoint as well to the said Person for his pains in receiving the said Sums as also to your Clark Messengers and Attendants upon you for their travel pains and charge to be sustained for Us about the Premises or any part thereof such sum and sums of Mony for their Rewards as by you or three of you shall be thought expedient Willing and commanding you or three of you after the time of this Our Commission is expired to certify into our Exchequer as well the Name of the said Receiver as also a note of such Fines as shall be set or taxed before you to the intent that upon the determination of the account of the same Receiver We may be answered that that to Us shall justly appertain Willing and Commanding also all Our Auditors and other Officers upon the sight of the said Bills signed with the Hands of you or three of you to make to the said Receiver due allowance according to the said Bills upon his account Wherefore We Will and Command you our said Commissioners with diligence to execute the Premises with effect any of Our Laws Statutes Proclamations or other Grants Priviledges or Ordinance which be or may seem to be contrary to the Premises notwithstanding And