King Edward the 6th by the same Act limited and appointed to remain to the Lady Mary his eldest Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten And for default of such Issue the Remainder thereof to the Lady Elizabeth by the Name of the Lady Elizabeth his second Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten with such Conditions as should be limited and appointed by the said late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor our Great Uncle by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed with his Hand And forasmuch as the said Limitation of the Imperial Crown of this Realm being limited as is afore-said to the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth being illegitimate and not lawfully begotten for that the Marriage had between â—he said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Katherine Mother to the said Lady Mary and also the Marriage had between the said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Ann Mother to the said Lady Elizabeth were clearly and lawfully undone by Sentences of Divorce according to the Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Laws and which said several Divorcements have been severally ratified and confirmed by Authority of Parliament and especially in the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progenitor and Great Uncle remaining in force strength and effect whereby as well the said Lady Mary as also the said Lady Elizabeth to all intents and purposes are and been clearly disabled to ask claim or challenge the said Imperial Crown or any other of the Honours Castles Manours Lordships Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments as Heir or Heirs to our said late Cousin King Edward the 6th or as Heir or Heirs to any other Person or Persons whatsoever as well for the Cause before rehearsed as also for that the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth were unto our said late Cousin but of the half Blood and therefore by the Ancient Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm be not inheritable unto our said late Cousin although they had been born in lawful Matrimony as indeed they were not as by the said Sentences of Divorce and the said Statute of the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progeâ—â—â—or and Great Uncle plainly appeareth And forasmuch also as it is to be thought or at the least much to be doubted that if the said Lady Mary or Lady Elizabeth should hereafter have or enjoy the said Imperial Crown of this Realm and should then happen to marry with any Stranger born out of this Realm that then the said Stranger having the Government and Imperial Crown in his Hands would adhere and practise not only to bring this Noble Free Realm into the Tyranny and Servitude of the Bishops of Rome but also to have the Laws and Customs of his or their own Native Country or Countries to be practised and put in ure within this Realm rather than the Laws Statutes and Customs here of long time used whereupon the Title of Inheritance of all and singular the Subjects of this Realm do depend to the peril of Conscience and the uttersubversion of the Common-Weal of this Realm Whereupon our said late dear Cousin weighing and considering within himself which ways and means were most convenient to be had for the stay of the said Succession in the said Imperial Crown if it should please God to call our said late Cousin out of this transitory Life having no Issue of his Body And calling to his remembrance that We and the Lady Katharine and the Lady Mary our Sisters being the Daughters of the Lady Frances our natural Mother and then and yet Wife to our natural and most loving Father Henry Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Margaret Daughter of the Lady Elianor then deceased Sister to the said Lady Frances and the late Wife of our Cousin Henry Earl of Cumberland were very nigh of his Graces Blood of the part of his Fathers side our said Progenitor and great Uncle and being naturally born here within the Realm And for the very good Opinion our said late Cousin had of our said Sisters and Cousin Margarets good Education did therefore upon good deliberation and advice herein had and taken by his said Letters Patents declare order assign limit and appoint that if it should fortune himself our said late Cousin King Edward the Sixth to decease having no Issue of his Body lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Confines of the same and his Title to the Crown of the Realm of France and all and singular Honours Castles Prerogatives Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities Jurisdictions Dominions Possessions and Hereditaments to our said late Cousin K. Edward the Sixth or to the said Imperial Crown belonging or in any wise appertaining should for lack of such Issue of his Body remain come and be to the eldest Son of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in his Life-time and to the Heirs Males of the Body of such eldest Son lawfully begotten and so from Son to Son as he should be of vicinity of Birth of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in our said late Cousins Life-time and to the Heirs Male of the Body of every such Son lawfully begotten And for default of such Son born into the World in his life-time of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten and for lack of Heirs Males of every such Son lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown and all and singular other the Premises should remain come and be to us by the Name of the Lady Jane eldest Daughter of the said Lady Frances and to the Heirs Males of our Body lawfully begotten and for lack of such Issue then to the Lady Katherine aforesaid our said second Sister and the Heirs Male of her Body lawfully begotten with divers other Remainders as by the same Letters Patents more plainly and at large it may and doth appear Sithence the making of our Letters Patents that is to say on Thursday which was the 6th day of this instant Month of July it hath pleased God to call unto his infinite Mercy our said most dear and entirely beloved Cousin Edward the Sixth whose Soul God pardon and forasmuch as he is now deceased having no Heirs of his Body begotten and that also there remaineth at this present time no Heirs lawfully begotten of the Body of our said Progenitor and great Uncle King Henry the Eighth And forasmuch also as the said Lady Frances our said Mother had no Issue Male begotten of her Body and born into the World in the life-time of our said Cousin King Edward the Sixth so as the said Imperial Crown and other the Premises to the same belonging or in any wise appertaining
Stewardships during Leases for 21 Years Forfeits under 40 l. Receiverships Woodwardships Surveyorships c. during pleasure Instalments of days for Debts To those Gentlemen that have well-served Fee-Farms to them and their Heirs Males of their Body paying their Rent and discharging the Annuities due to all Officers touching the same Keeping of Houses and Parks ordinary Offices as Yeomen of the Crown the Houshold Offices c. June 2. Sir John Williams who was committed to the Fleet for disobeying a Commandment given to him for not paying any Pensions without not making my Council privy upon his submission was delivered out of Prison 4. Beamont Master of the Rolls did confess his Offences who in his Office of Wards had bought Land with my Mony had lent it and kept it from Me to the value of 9000 l. and above more than this twelve month and 11000 in Obligations how he being Judg in the Chancery between the Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Powis took her Tittle and went about to get it into his Hands paying a Sum of Mony and letting her have a Farm of a Manour of his and caused an Indenture to be made falsly with the old Duke's counterfeit Hand to it by which he gave these Lands to the Lady Powis and went about to make twelve Men perjured Also how he had concealed the Felony of his Man to the Sum of 200 l. which he stole from him taking the Mony into his own hand again For these Considerations he surrendered into my Hands all his Offices Lands and Goods moveable and unmoveable toward the paiment of this Debt and of the Fines due to these particular Faults by him done 6. The Lord Paget Chancellor of the Dutchy confessed how he without Commission did sell away my Lands and great Timber-Woods how he had taken great Fines of my Lands to his said particular Profit and Advantage never turning any to my Use or Commodity how he made Leases in Reversion for more than 21 Years For these Crimes and other-like recited before he surrendred his Office and submitted himself to those Fines that I or my Council would appoint to be levied of his Goods and Lands 7. Whaley Receiver of York-shire confessed how he lent my Mony upon Gain and Lucre how he paied one Years Revenue over with the Arrearages of the last how he bought mine own Land with my own Mony how in his Accompts he had made many false Suggestions how at the time of the fall of Mony he borrowed divers Sums of Mony and had allowance for it after by which he gained 500 l. at one crying down the whole Sum being 2000 l. and above For these and such-like Considerations he surrendred his Office and submitted to Fines which I or my Council should assign him to be levied of his Goods and Lands 8. The Lords of the Council sat at Guild-hall in London where in the presence of a thousand People they declared to the Mayor and Brethren their sloathfulness in suffering unreasonable prices of Things and to Craftsmen their willfulness c. telling them That if upon this Admonition they did not amend I was wholly determined to call in their Liberties as confiscate and to appoint Officers that should look to them 10. It was appointed that the Lord Gray of Wilton should be pardoned of his Offences and delivered out of the Tower Whereas Sir Philip Hobbey should have gone to Calais with Sir Richard Cotton and William Barnes Auditor it was appointed Sir Anthony St. Legier Sir Richard Cotton and Sir Thomas Mildmay should go thither carrying with them 10000 l. to be received out of the Exchequer Whereas it was agreed that there should be a Pay now made to Ireland of 5000 l. and then the Mony to be cried down it was appointed that 3000 weight which I had in the Tower should be carried thither and coined at 3 Denar fine and that incontinent the Coin should be cried down 12. Because Pirry tarried here for the Bullion William Williams Essay-Master was put in his place to view the Mines with Mr. Brabazon or him whom the Deputy should appoint 13. Banester and Crane the one for his large Confession the other because little Matter appeared against him were delivered out of the Tower 16. The Lord Paget was brought into Star-Chamber and there declared effectuously his submission by word of Mouth and delivered it in writing Beaumont who had before made his Confession in writing began to deny it again but after being called before my Council he did confess it again and there acknowledged a Fine of his Land and signed an Obligation in surrender of all his Goods 17. Monsieur de Couriers took his leave 2. The French King won the Castle of Robdemac Certain Horsemen of the Regents came and set upon the French King's Baggage and slew divers of the Carriers but at length with some loss of the Frenchmen they were compelled to retire The French King won Mount St. Ann. 4. The French King came to Deuvillars which was a strong Town and besieged it making three Breaches 12. The Town was yielded to him with the Captain He found in it 2500 Footmen 200 Horsemen 63 great Brass-pieces 300 Hagbuts of Croke much Victual and much Ammunition as he did write to his Ambassador 19. It was appointed that the Bishop of Durham's Matter should stay till the end of the Progress 20. Beaumont in the Star-Chamber confessed after a little sticking upon the Matter his Faults to which he had put to his Hand 22. It was agreed that the Bands of Men of Arms appointed to Mr. Sidney Mr. Vicechamberlain Mr. Hobbey and Mr. Sadler should not be furnished but left off 25. It was agreed that none of my Council should move Me in any Suit of Land for Forfeits above 20 l. for Reversion of Leases or other extraordinary Suits till the State of my Revenues were further known 15. The French King came to a Town standing upon the River of Mosa called Yvoire which gave him many hot Skirmishes 18. The French King began his Battery to the Walls 14. The Townsmen of Mountmedy gave a hot Skirmish to the French and slew Monsieur de Toge's Brother and many other Gentlemen of the Camp 12. The Prince of Salerno who had been with the French King to treat with him touching the Matter of Naples was dispatched in Post with this Answer That the French King would aid him with 13000 Footmen and 1500 Horsemen in the French Wages to recover and conquer the Kingdom of Naples and he should marry as some said the French King's Sister Madam Margaret The Cause why this Prince rebelled against the Emperor was partly the uncourteous handling of the Viceroy of Naples partly Ambition The Flemings made an Invasion into Champaign in so much that the Dolphin had almost been taken and the Queen lying at Chalons sent some of her Stuff toward Paris Also another Company took the Town of Guise and spoiled the Country 22. Monsieur
used to bless of which I never met with any thing before I saw this Letter but since I understand the Office of Blessing of these Rings is extant as it was prepared for Queen Maries use as shall be told in her Reign It must be left to conjecture whether he did it as a practice of former Kings or whether upon his being made Supream Head he thought fit to take on him as the Pope did to consecrate such things and send them about Where to be sure Fancy and Flattery would raise many Stories of the wonderful effects of what he had so blessed and perhaps these might have been as true as the Reports made of the Vertues of Agnus Deis touched Beads blessed Peebles with such other goodly Ware which the Friars were wont to carry about and distribute to their Benefactors as things highly sanctified This I set down more fully and have laid some things together that fell not out till some months after this being the first step that was made towards a Reformation in this Reign Upon this occasion it is not unlikely that the Council wrote their Letteâ—s to all the Justices of Peace of England 1547. Feb. 12. The Commission of the Justices of the Peace on the 12th of Feb. letting them know that they had sent down new Commissions to them for keeping the Peace ordering them to assemble together and first to call earnestly on God for his Grace to discharge their Duties faithfully according to the Oaths which they were to take and that they should impartially without corruption or sinister affection execute their Office so that it might appear that they had God and the good of their King and Country before their Eyes and that they should divide themselves into the several Hundreds and see to the publick Peace and that all Vagabonds and disturbers of the Peace should be duly punished and that once every six weeks they should write to the Lord Protector and Council the state in which the County was till they were otherwise commanded That which was sent into the County of Norfolk will be found in the Collection Collection Number 3. But now the Funeral of the deceased King and the Coronation of his Son were to be dispatched In the Coronation-Ceremonies that had been formerly used there were some things that did not agree with the present Laws of the Land as the Promise made to the Abbots for maintaining their Lands and Dignities They were also so tedious that a new Form was ordered to be drawn which the Reader will find in the Collection The most material thing in it is the first Ceremony Collection Number 4. whereby the King being shewed to the People at the four Corners of the Stage the Arch-bishop was to demand their Consent to it and yet in such terms as should demonstrate he was no Elective Prince for he being declared the rightful and undoubted Heir both by the Laws of God and Man they were desired to give their good Wills and Assents to the same as by their Duty of Allegiance they were bound to do This being agreed on the 13th of Feb. on the day following King Henry's Body was with all the pomp of a Royal Funeral removed to Sheen in the way to Windsor 1547. Feb. 13. King Henry buried There great observation was made on a thing that was no extraordinary matter He had been extreme corpulent and dying of a Dropsie or some thing like it it was no wonder if a fortnight after upon so long a motion some putrid Matter might run thorough the Coffin But Sheen having been a House of Religious Women it was called a signal Mark of the displeasure of Heaven that some of his Blood and Fat droped through the Lead in the night and to make this work mightily on weak People it was said that the Dogs licked it next morning This was much magnified in Commendation of Friar Peto afterwards made Cardinal who as was told Page 151. of the former Part had threatned him in a Sermon at Greenwich That the Dogs should lick his Blood Though to consider things more equally it had been a Wonder indeed if it had been otherwise But having met with this Observation in a MS. written near that time I would not envy the World the Pleasure of it Next day he was brought to Windsor and interred in St. George's Chappel And he having by his Will left that Church 600 l. a year for ever for two Priests to say Mass at his Tomb daily for four Obits yearly and a Sermon at every Obit with 10 l. to the Poor and for a Sermon every Sunday together with the maintenance of thirteen poor Knights The Judges were consulted how this should be well setled in Law Who advised that the Lands which the King had given should be made over to that Colledge by Indentures Tripartite the King being one Party the Protector and the other Executors a second and the Dean and Chapter of Windsor a third Party These were to be Signed with the Kings Hand and the Great Seal put to them with the Hands and Seals of all the rest and then Patents were to be given for the Lands founded on the Kings Testament and the Indentures Tripartite Soul-Masses examined But the Pomp of this Business ministred an occasion of enquiring into the use and lawfulness of Soul-Masses and Obits which came to be among the first things that were reformed Christ had instituted the Sacrament to be celebrated in remembrance of his Death and it was a Sacrament only to those who did participate in it but that the consecrating the Sacrament could be of any use to departed Souls seemed a thing not easie to be conceived For if they are the Prayers of the Living that profit the Dead then these would have done as well without a Mass But the People would not have esteemed bare Prayers so much nor have payed so dear for them So that the true original of Soul-Masses was thought to have been only to encrease the Esteem and Wealth of the Clergy It is true in the Primitive Church there was a Commemoration of the Saints departed in the Daily Sacrifice so they termed the Communion and such as had given any offence at their death were not remembred in it So that for so slight an offence as the leaving a Priest Tutor to ones Children which might distract them from their Spiritual care ones Name was to be left out of that Commemoration in Cyprians time which was a very disproportioned punishment to that offence if such Commemorations had been thought useful or necessary to the Souls departed But all this was nothing to the private Masses for them and was indeed nothing at first but an honourable mention of such as had died in the Faith And they believing then generally that there was a Glorious Thousand Years to be on Earth and that the Saints should rise some sooner and some later to have their part in it they
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
is thought and of these I must confess my self to your Lordship to be one And God is my Judg whether it be for any other respect in this World but that I suppose and verily believe it may prove best for her Majesty 's own quietness during her time And here I must before open to your Lordship indeed her Majesty's true State she presently stands in which though it may be granted the former Advice the better way yet how hardly it layeth in her Power to go thorow withal you shall easily judg For it must be confessed That by the taking into her protection the King and the Faction she must enter into a War for it And as the least War being admitted cannot be maintained without great Charge so such a War may grow France or Spain setting in foot as may cause it to be an intollerable War Then being a War it must be Treasure that must maintain it That she hath Treasure to continue any time in War surely my Lord I cannot see it And as your Lordship doth see the present Relief for Mony we trust upon which either failing us or it rising no more than I see it like to be not able long to last Where is there further hope of help hereafter For my own part I see none If it be so then my Lord that her Majesty's present estate is such as I tell you which I am sure is true How shall this Counsel stand with security by taking a Party to enter into a War when we are no way able to maintain it for if we enter into it once and be driven either for Lack or any other way to shrink what is like to follow of the Matter your Lordship can well consider the best is we must be sorry for that we have done and per-chance seek to make a-mends where we neither would nor should This is touching the present State we stand in Besides we are to remember what already we have done how many ways even now together the Realm hath been universally burdened First For the keeping of new bands after the furnishing of Armour and therein how continually the Charge sooner hath grown than Subsidies payed And lastly the marvellous charge in most Countries against the late Rebellion with this Loan of Mony now on the neck of it Whether this State doth require further cause of imposition or no I refer to your Lordship And whether entring into a further Charge than her Majesty hath presently wherewithal to bear it will force such a Matter or no I refer to wiser to judg And now my Lord I will shew you such Reasons as move me to think as I do In Worldly Causes Men must be governed by Worldly Policies and yet so to frame them as God the Author of all be chiefly regarded From him we have received Laws under which all Mens Policies and Devices ought to be Subject and through his Ordinance the Princes on the Earth have Authority to give Laws by which also all Princes have the Obedience of the People And though in some Points I shall deal like a Worldly Man for my Prince yet I hope I shall not forget that I am a Christian nor my Duty to God Our Question is this Whether it be meeter for our Soveraign to maintain the young King of Scotland and his Authority or upon Composition restore the Queen of Scots into her Kingdom again To restore her simply we are not of Opinion for so I must confess a great over-sight and doubt no better Success than those that do Object most Perils thereby to ensue But if there be any Assurances in this World to be given or any Provision by Worldly Policy to be had then my Lord I do not see but Ways and Means may be used with the Queen of Scots whereby her Majesty may be at quiet and yet delivered of her present great Charge It is granted and feared of all sides that the cause of any trouble or danger to her Majesty is the Title the Queen of Scotland pretends to the Crown of this Realm The Danger we fear should happen by her is not for that she is Queen of Scotland but that other the great Princes of Christendom do favour her so much as in respect of her Religion they will in all Causes assist her and specially by the colour of her Title seem justly to aid and relieve her and the more lawfully take her and her Causes into their Protection Then is the Title granted to be the chief Cause of danger to our Soveraign If it be so Whether doth the setting up the Son in the Mothers Place from whence his Title must be claimed take away her Title in the Opinion of those Princes or no notwithstanding she remain Prisoner It appeareth plainly No for there is continual Labour and means made from the greatest Princes our Neighbours to the Queen's Majesty for restoring the Queen of Scotland to her Estate and Government otherwise they protest open Relief and Aid for her Then though her Majesty do maintain the young King in his present Estate yet it appears that other Princes will do the contrary And having any advantage how far they will proceed Men may suspect And so we must conceive that as long as this Difference shall continue by the maintaining of these two so long shall the same Cause remain to the trouble and danger of the Queen's Majesty And now to avoid this whilst she lives What better Mean is there to take this Cause away but by her own consent to renounce and release all such Interest or Title as she claimeth either presently or hereafter during the Life of her Majesty and the Heirs of her Body Albeit here may two Questions be moved First Whether the Scots Queen will renounce her Title or no Secondly If she will do so What Assurance may she give for the performance thereof To the first It is most certain she hath and presently doth offer wholly and frankly to release and renounce all manner of Claims and Titles whatsoever they be to the Crown of this Realm during her Majesty's Life and the Heirs of her Body And for the second She doth likewise offer all manner of Security and Assurances that her Majesty can devise and is in that Queen 's possible Power to do she excepteth none Then must we consider what may be Assurances for here is the difficulty For that Objections be that Princes never hold Promises longer than for their own Commodity and what Security soever they put in they may break if they will All this may be granted but yet that we must grant also that Princes do daily Treat and deal one with another and of necessity are forced to trust to such Bonds and Assurances as they contract by And as there is no such Surety to be had in Worldly Matters but all are subject to many Casualties yet we see such Devices made even among Princes as doth tie them to perform that which
such things as your Majesty willed me to be done And first where your Majesty's Pleasure was to have the Names of such Persons as your Highness in times past appointed to make Laws Ecclesiastical for your Grace's Realm The Bishop of Worcester promised me with all speed to enquire out their Names and the Book which they made and to bring the Names and also the Book unto your Majesty which I trust he hath done before this time And as concerning the ringing of Bells upon Alhallow-day at Night and covering of Images in Lent and creeping to the Cross he thought it necessary that a Letter of your Majesty's Pleasure therein should be sent by your Grace unto the two Arch-Bishops and we to send the same to all other Prelats within your Grace's Realm And if it be your Majesty's Pleasure so to do I have for more speed herein drawn a Minute of a Letter which your Majesty may alter at your Pleasure Nevertheless in my Opinion when such things be altered or taken away there would be set forth some Doctrine therewith which should declare the Cause of the Abolishing or Alteration for to satisfy the Conscience of the People For if the Honouring of the Cross as creeping and kneeling thereunto be taken away it shall seem to many that be ignorant that the Honour of Christ is taken away unless some good teaching be set forth withal to instruct them sufficiently therein which if your Majesty command the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester with other your Grace's Chaplains to make the People shall obey your Majesty's Commandment willingly giving thanks to your Majesty that they know the Truth which else they would obey with murmuration and grutching And it shall be a satisfaction unto all other Nations when they shall see your Majesty do nothing but by the Authority of God's Word and to the setting forth of God's Honour and not diminishing thereof And thus Almighty God keep your Majesty in his Preservation and Governance From my Mannor at Beckisbourn the 24th of January 45. Your Graces most bounden Chaplain and Beadsman POSTSCRIPT I Beseech your Majesty that I may be a Suitor unto the same for your Cathedral Church of Canterbury who to their great unquietness and also great Charges do alienate their Lands daily and as it is said by your Majesty's Commandment But this I am sure that other Men have gotten their best Lands and not your Majesty Wherefore this is mine only Suit That when your Majesty's Pleasure shall be to have any of their Lands that they may have some Letter from your Majesty to declare your Majesty's Pleasure without the which they be sworn that they shall make no Alienation And that the same Alienation be not made at other Mens pleasures but only to your Majesty's Use For now every Man that list to have any of their Lands make suit to get it into your Majesty's Hands not that your Majesty should keep the same but by Sale or Gift from your Majesty to translate it from your Grace's Cathedral Church unto themselves T. Cantuarien The Draught of a Letter which the King sent to Cranmer against some superstitious Practices To the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury FOrasmuch as you as well in your own Name as in the Name of the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester and other our Chaplains and Learned Men whom We appointed with you to peruse certain Books of Service which We delivered unto you moved Us that the Vigil and ringing of Bells all the Night long upon Alhallow-day at Night and the covering of Images in the Church in the time of Lent with the lifting up the Veil that covereth the Cross upon Palm-Sunday with the kneeling to the Cross at the same time might be abolished and put away for the Superstition and other Enormities and Abuses of the same First Forasmuch as all the Vigils of our Lady and the Apostles and all other Vigils which in the beginning of the Church were Godly used yet for the manifold Superstition and Abuses which after did grow by means of the same they be many Years past taken away throughout all Christendom and there remaineth nothing but the name of the Vigil in the Calendar the thing clearly abolished and put away saving only upon Alhallows-day at Night upon which Night is kept Vigil Watching and ringing of Bells all the Night long Forasmuch as that Vigil is abused as other Vigils were Our pleasure is as you require That the said Vigil shall be abolished as the other be and that there shall be no watching nor ringing but as be commonly used upon other Holy-days at Night We be contented and pleased also That the Images in Churches shall not be covered as hath been accustomed in times past nor no Veil upon the Cross nor no kneeling thereto upon Palm-Sunday nor any other time And forasmuch as you make no mention of creeping to the Cross which is a greater abuse than any of the other for there you say Crucem tuam adoramus Domine and the Ordinal saith Procedant Clerici ad crucem adorandum nudis pedibus And after followeth in the same Ordinal Ponatur Crux ante aliquod Altare ubi a populo adoretur which by your own Book called A Necessary Doctrine is against the Second Commandment Therefore Our Pleasure is That the said creeping to the Cross shall likewise cease from hence-forth and be abolished with the other Abuses before rehearsed And this We will and straitly command you to signify unto all the Prelats and Bishops of your Province of Canterbury charging them in Our Name to see the same executed every one in his Diocess accordingly FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS c. BOOK II. Number 1. The Proclamation of Lady Jane Grayes Title to the Crown JANE by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland under Christ in Earth the Supream Head To all our most Loving Faithful and Obedient Subjects and to every of them Greeting Whereas our most dear Cousin Edward the 6th late King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supream Head under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland by his Letters Patents signed with his own Hand and sealed with his Great Seal of England bearing date the 21st day of June in the seventh Year of his Reign in the presence of the most part of his Nobles his Councellors Judges and divers other grave and sage Personages for the profit and surety of the whole Realm thereto assenting and subscribing their Names to the same hath by the same his Letter Patents recited That forasmuch as the Imperial Crown of this Realm by an Act made in the 35th Year of the Reign of the late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and great Uncle was for lack of Issue of his Body lawfully begotten and for lack of Issue of the Body of our said late Cousin