Brittish Monks were is not well known The State of the Monasteries in England whether they were governed according to the Rules of the Monks of Egypt or France is matter of Conjecture They were in all things obedient to their Bishops as all the Monks of the Primitive Times were But upon the Confusions which the Gothick Wars brought upon Italy Benedict set up a new Order with more Artificial Rules for its Government Not long after Gregory the Great raised the Credit of that Order much by his Books of Dialogues and Austin the Monk being sent by him to convert England did found a Monastery at Canterbury that carried his Name which both the King and Austin exempted from the Arch-bishop's Jurisdiction But there is great reason to suspect that most of those Antient Charters were forged After that many other Abbies were founded and exempted by the Kings of England if Credit is due to the Leiger Books or Chartularies of the Monasteries In the end of the eighth Century the Danes made Descents upon England and finding the most Wealth and the least Resistance in the Monasteries they generally plundered them in so much that the Monks were forced to quit their Seats and they left them to the Secular Clergy so that in King Edgar's time there was scarce a Monk left in all England He was a leud and cruel Prince and Dunstan and other Monks taking Advantage from some horrours of Conscience that he fell under perswaded him that the restoring the Monastick State would be matter of great Merit so he converted many of the Chapters into Monasteries and by the Foundation of the Priory of Worcester it appears he had then founded 47 and intended to raise them to 50 the number of Pardon tho the Invention of Jubilees being so much later gives occasion to believe this was also a Forgery He only exempted his Monasteries from all Payments to the Bishops but others were exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction In some only the Precinct was exempted in others the Exemption was extended to all the Lands or Churches belonging to them The latest Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction granted by any King is that of Battel founded by William the Conquerour After this the Exemptions were granted by the Popes who pretending to an Universal Jurisdiction assumed this among other Usurpations Some Abbies had also the Priviledg of being Sanctuaries to all that fled to them The Foundation of all their Wealth was the belief of Purgatory and of the Virtue that was in Masses to redeem Souls out of it and that these eased the Torments of departed Souls and at last delivered them out of them so it past among all for a piece of Piety to Parents and of care for their own Souls and Families to endow those Houses with some Lands upon condition that they should have Masses said for them as it was agreed on more or less frequently according to the measure of the Gift This was like to have drawn in the whole Wealth of the Nation into those Houses if the Statute of Mortmain had not put some restraint to that Superstition They also perswaded the World that the Saints interceded for them and would take it kindly at their hands if they made great Offerings to their Shrines and would thereupon intercede the more earnestly for them The credulous Vulgar measuring the Court of Heaven by those on Earth believed Presents might be of great Efficacy there and thought the new Favourites would have the most Weight in their Intercessions So upon every new Canonization there was a new Fit of Devotion towards the last Saint which made the elder to grow almost out of request Some Images were believed to have an extraordinary Virtue in them and Pilgrimages to these were much extolled There was also great Rivalry among the several Orders and different Houses of the same Orders every one magnifying their own Saints their Images and Relicks most The Wealth of these Houses brought them under great Corruptions They were generally very dissolute and grosly ignorant Their Priviledges were become a publick Grievance and their Lives gave great Scandal to the World So that as they had found it easy to bear down the Secular Clergy when their own Vices were more secret the begging Friers found it as easy to carry the Esteem of the World from them These under the Appearance of Poverty and course Diet and Cloathing gained much Esteem and became almost the only Preachers and Confessors then in the World They had a General at Rome from whom they received such Directions as the Popes sent them so that they were more useful to the Papacy then the Monks had been They had also the School-Learning in their hands so that they were generally much cherished But they living much in the World could not conceal their Vices so artificially as the Monks had done and tho several Reformations had been made of their Orders yet they had all fallen under great Scandal and a general Disesteem The King intended to erect new Bishopricks and in order to that it was necessary to make use of some of their Revenues He also apprehended a War from the Emperour and for that end he intended to fortify his Harbours and to encourage Shipping and Trade upon which the Ballance of the World began then to turn And in order to that he resolved to make use of the Wealth of those Houses and thought the best way to bring that into his hands would be to expose their Vices that so they might quite lose the Esteem they might yet be in with some and so it might be less dangerous to suppress them Cranmer promoted this much both because these Houses were founded on gross Abuses and subsisted by them and these were necessary to be removed if a Reformation went on The Extent of many Diocesses was also such that one man could not oversee them so he intended to have more Bishopricks founded and to have Houses at every Cathedral for the Education of those who should be imploied in the Pastoral Charge The Visitors went over England and found in many places monstrous Disorders The Sin of Sodom was found in many Houses great Factions and Barbarous Cruelties were in others and in some they found Tools for Coining The Report contained many abominable things that are not fit to be mentioned Some of these were printed but the greatest part is lost only a Report of 144 Houses is yet extant The first House that was surrendered to the King Some Houses surrendered was Langden in Kent the Abbot was found a Bed with a Whore who went in the Habit of a Lay Brother This perhaps made him more willing to give an Example to the rest so he and ten of his Monks signed a Resignation of their House to the King Two other Houses in the same County Folkeston and Dover followed their Example And in the following Year four other Houses made the like Surrenders and these were all that I find
against Lollard's one confirming the Act of the six Articles and others against Erroneous Opinions but they were all laid aside by the Lords for the corrupted Members in the lower House were officious to shew their Zeal for Spain and Popery Another Bill was sent up by them that the Bishop of Rome should have no authority to trouble any for possessing Abbey Lands But it was said this was preposterous to begin with a limitation of the Pope's authority before they had acknowledged that he had any power at all in England and that would come in more properly after they had reconciled the Nation to him During this Parliament New disputations at Oxford with Cranmer the Convocation sat and that they might remove the objections that some made to the Disputations at their last meeting that the ablest Men of the Reformers were kept in Prison while that cause was debated they sent a Committee of their ablest men to Oxford to dispute with Cranmer Ridley and Latimer who were also sent thither The Points to be disputed about were Transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass When Cranmer was brought before them and they exhorted him to return to the unity of the Church he answered that he was always for that Unity which could consist with truth They fell into a long dispute concerning the words of the Institution that they must be true for Christ was Truth and was then making his Testament many Passages of the Fathers were also alledged against him it was said that he had translated many things falsly out of the Fathers in his Book and the Prolocutor called him often an Vnlearned and Impudent Man But he carried himself with that gravity and mildness that many were observ'd to be much affected at it and to weep he vindicated his sincerity in his Book he shewed that Figurative speeches were true and when the Figures were clearly understood they were likewise plain he said the Sacrament was effectually and really Christs Body as it was broken on the Cross that is his Passion effectually applied to us The whole action was carried with such hissing and insulting and ended with such shouts of Triumph as if Cranmer had been quite baffled that it was visible there was nothing intended but to abuse the ignorant People and make them believe he was run down Ridley was brought out next day he began with deep Protestations of his sincerity and that he had changed the Opinion he had been bred up in meerly upon the force of Truth he argued from the Scriptures that speak of Christs leaving the World and sitting at the right hand of God and that the Sacrament was a Memorial which good and bad might equally receive that it was against the Humane Nature to swallow down a living Man that this Opinion was contrary to the humanity of Christ and was a new Doctrin unknown to the Fathers and brought into the Church in the later Ages Smith argued against him from Christ's appearing to Saint Stephen and to Saint Paul that he might be in more places at once Ridley said Christ might either come down and appear to them or a Representation might be made of him but he could not be both in Heaven and Earth at once Many of Chrysostome's expressions were alledged but he said these were Rhetorical figures and to be explained by other plainer passages The dispute was carried on with the same Insultings that had been used the Day before and in conclusion Weston the Prolocutor said they saw the Obstinacy Vain-glory and Inconstancy of that Man but they saw likewise the force of Truth so he bid them cry out with him Truth has the Victory upon which that was ecchoed over and over again by the whole Assembly Latimer was brought out next Day he told them he was Fourscore Years old and not fit for disputing so he would declare his Opinion and then leave them to say what they pleased He thought the Sacrament was only a Memorial of Christ all who fed on Christ had Eternal life and therefore that feeding could not be meant of the Sacrament since both good and bad received it he said his Memory was much impaired but his Faith was founded on the Word of God so though he could not dispute well yet his Faith was firmly rooted Upon this there were extraordinary shouts raised and during the whole Debates the noise and disorder was such that it lookt liker a Countrey Game than a Dispute among Divines four or five spoke oft at once so that it was not possible to hear what they said much less to answer it The Committee of Convocation condemned them all as obstinate Hereticks and declared them to be no Members of the Church They appealed from their Sentence to the Judgment of God and expressed great joy in the hopes they had they should glorifie God by dying for his Truth Cranmer sent a Petition to the Council complaining of the disorder of these Disputes and of hudling them up in such hast that it was visible nothing was intended by them but to shuffle up things so that the World might be more easily abused with the name of a Disputation But this was not delivered for it was intended to keep up this boasting that the Champions of the Reformation were publickly baffled It was also resolved to carry some of the Prisoners that were in London to Cambridge and there to erect new Trophies in the same manner they had done at Oxford Upon this three of the imprisoned Bishops and seven Divines signed a Paper by which they declared that they would engage in no dispute except it were in Writing unless it were in the presence of the Queen or the Council or before either of the Houses of Parliament It was visible the design of disputing was not to find out the Truth otherwise it had been done before these Points had been so positively determined but now there was no benefit to be expected by it nor could they look for fair dealing where their Enemies were to be their Judges nor would they suffer them to speak their minds freely and after so long an Imprisonment their Books and Papers being kept from them they could not be furnished to answer many things that might be objected to them Then they added a short account of their Perswasions in the chief points of Controversie which they would be ready to defend on fair and equal terms and concluded with a charge to all People not to Rebel against the Queen but to obey all her Commands that were not contrary to the Law of God In July The Pr. of Spain lands and marries the Queen Prince Philip landed at Southampton when he set foot to Land he drew his Sword and carried it a little way naked in his hand This was interpreted as a sign that he intended to rule by the Sword but his friends said it imported that he would draw his Sword for the defence of the Nation The Mayor of
guilty were to be punished in the same manner The Innocent Party might marry again after a Divorce Desertion or Mortal Enmity or the constant perversness of a Husband might induce a Divorce but little quarrels nor a perpetual Disease might not do it and the separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was never to be allowed 11. Patrons were charged to give presentations without making bargains to choose the fittest persons and not to make promises till the Livings were vacant The Bishops were required to use great strictness in the Trial of those whom they ordained all Pluralities and Non-residence were condemned and all that were presented were to purge themselves of Simony by Oath The twelfth and thirteenth were concerning the changing of Benefices The fourteenth was concerning the manner of purgation upon common fame all superstitious Purgations were condemned Others followed about Dilapidations Elections and Collations The nineteenth was concerning Divine Offices The Communion was ordered to be every Sunday in Cathedrals and a Sermon was to be in them in the afternoon such as received the Sacrament were to give notice to the Minister the day before that he might examine their Consciences The Catechism was appointed to be explained for an Hour in the afternoon on Holy-days After the Evening Prayer the Poor were to be taken care of Penances were to be enjoyned to scandalous Persons and the Minister was to confer with some of the Ancients of the People concerning the state of the Parish That admonitions and censures might be applied as there was occasion given The twentieth was concerning other Church-Officers A Rural Dean was to be in every Precinct to watch over the Clergy according to the Bishops directions Archdeacons were to be over them and the Bishop over all who was to have yearly Synods and visit every third Year His Family was to consist of Clergymen in imitation of St. Austin and other ancient Bishops these he was to train up for the service of the Church When Bishops became infirm they were to have Co-adjutors Arch-bishops were to do the Episcopal duties in their Diocess and to visit their Province Every Synod was to begin with a Communion and after that the Ministers were to give an account of their Parishes and follow such directions as the Bishop should give them Other heads followed concerning Church-Wardens Tithes Universities Visitations and several sorts of Censures In the thirtieth a large Scheme was drawn of Excommunication which was intrusted to Church-men for keeping the Church pure and was not to be inflicted but for obstinacy in some gross fault all causes upon which it was pronounced were to be examined before the Minister of the Parish a Justice of Peace and some other Church-men It was to be pronounced and intimated with great seriousness and all were to be warned not to keep company with the person censured under the like pains except those of his own Family Upon his continuing forty days obstinate under it a Writ was to be issued out for Commitment till the Sentence should be taken off Such as had the King's Pardon for Capital offences were yet liable to Church censures Then followed the Office of absolving Penitents They were to come to the Church-door and crave admittance and the Minister having brought them in was to read a long discourse concerning Sin Repentance and the Mercies of God Then the Party was to confess his sin and to ask God and the Congregation pardon upon which the Minister was to lay his hands on his Head and to pronounce the Absolution Then a thanksgiving was to be offered to God at the Communion Table for the reclaiming that sinner The other Heads of this work relate to the other parts of the Law of those Courts It is certain that the abounding of Vice and Impiety flows in a great measure from the want of that strictness of censure which was the glory of the Christian Church in the Primitive times and it is a publick connivance at sin that there have not been more effectual ways taken for making sinners ashamed and denying them the Priviledges of Christians till they have changed their ill course of life There were at this time also remedies under consideration The Poverty of the Clergy for the great misery and poverty the Clergy were generally in but the Laity were so much concerned to oppose all these that there was no hope of bringing them to any good effect till the King should come to be of Age himself and endeavour to recover again a competent maintenance for the Clergy out of their hands who had devoured their Revenues Both Heath and Day the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester were this Year deprived of their Bishopricks by a Court of Delegates that were all Lay-men But it does not appear for what offences they were so censured The Bishopricks of Gloucester and Worcester were both united and put under Hooper's care but soon after the former was made an exempted Archdeaconry and he was declared Bishop only of Worcester In every See as it fell vacant the best Mannors were laid hold on by such hungry Courtiers as had the Interest to procure the Grant of them It was thought that the Bishops Sees were so out of Measure enriched that they could never be made poor enough but such hast was made in spoiling them that they were reduced to so low a condition that it was hardly possible for a Bishop to subsist in them If what had been thus taken from them had been converted to good uses such as the supplying the Inferiour Clergy it had been some mitigation of so heinous a robbery But their Lands were snatched up by Laymen who thought of making no Compensation to the Church for the spoils thus made by them This Year the Reformation had some more footing in Ireland than formerly Affairs in Ireland Henry the VIII had assumed to himself by consent of the Parliament of that Kingdom the Title of King of Ireland the former Kings of England having only been called Lords of it The Popes and Emperours have pretended that such Titles could be given only by them The former said all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Christ and by consequence to his Vicar The latter as carrying the Title of Roman Emperour pretended that as they Anciently bestowed those Titles so that devolved on them who retained only the name and shadow of that Great Authority But Princes and States have thought that they may bring themselves under what Titles they please In Ireland though the Kings of England were well obeyed within the English Pale yet the Irish continued barbarous and uncivilised and depended on the heads of their Names or Tribes and were obedient or did rebel as they directed them In Vlster they had a great dependance on Scotland and there were some risings there during the War with Scotland which were quieted by giving the Leading-men Pensions and getting them to come and live within
Beard and the holding a Candle to his Hand till the Veins and Sinews burst and these not prevailing to make him change he was at last burnt in Smithfield One Hunter an Apprentice not above XIX Years old was condemned and burnt on the same account Bonner was so much concerned to preserve him that he offered him Forty Pound to change so mercenary did he think other Mens consciences were measuring them probably by his own Two Gentlemen Causton and Higbed one Lawrence a Priest and two meaner Persons were burnt near their own Houses in Essex The Method in these and in all the other proceedings during the rest of this reign was summary and ex officio Upon complaints made Persons were imprisoned and Articles containing the Points for which they were suspected were offered to them which they were required to answer and if their answers were Heretical they were burnt for them without any thing being objected to them or proved against them Ferrar that had been Bishop of S. Davids was dealt with in the same manner by his Successor Morgan When he was condemned he appealed to Cardinal Pool but that had no other effect save that his Execution was stopt three Weeks Rawlins White a poor Fisherman was condemned by the Bishop of Landaffe and afterwards burnt Marsh a Priest was burnt at Chester and to the ordinary Cruelty of burning they added a new Invention of pouring melted Pitch on his Head One Flower a rash and furious Man wounded a Priest at S. Margaret's Westminster as he was officiating for which being seised on and found to be an Heretick he was condemned and burnt The fact was disapproved by all the Reformed and he became sincerely Penitent for it before he died After this for some Weeks there was a stop put to those severities The Queen about this time sent for her Treasurer The Queen restores the Church-Lands and some of the other Officers of her Revenue and told them that she thought her self bound in Conscience to restore all the Lands of the Church that were then in her hands she thought they were unlawfully acquired and that they could not be held by her without a sin therefore she declared she would have them disposed of as Cardinal Pool should think fit Some imputed this to a Bull set out by the Pope excommunicating all that kept any Lands belonging to Abbies or Churches This alarmed many in England but Gardiner pacified them and told them that Bull was made only for Germany and that no Bull did bind in England till it was received But this did not satisfie Inquisitive People for a sin in Germany was likewise a sin in England and if the Pope's authority came from Christ it ought to take place every where equally Pope Julius died in March Marcellus chosen Pope Paul the IV. succeeds and Marcellus was chosen to succeed him he turned his thoughts wholly to the Reformation of abuses He suffered none of his Nephews nor Kindred to come to Court and resolved effectually to put down Non-residence and Pluralities but he found it very difficult to bring about the good designs he had projected and that the Popes power was such that it was more easie for him to do mischief than good which made him once cry out That he did not see how any could be saved that sat in that Chair These things wrought so much on him that he sickned within Twelve Days of his Election and died Ten Days after that Upon his death the Queen endeavoured to engage the French to consent to the Promotion of Cardinal Pool which she did without his knowledge or approbation but at Rome they were so apprehensive of another Pope set on Reformations that they made hast in their choice and set up Caraffa called Paul the Fourth who was the most extravagantly ambitious and insolent Pope that had reigned of a great while On the day of his Election The English Ambassadours come to Rome the English Ambassadors entred Rome in great state having in their Train 140. Horse of their own Attendants but the Pope would not admit them to an Audience till they had accepted of a Grant of the Title of the Kingdom of Ireland for he pretended it belonged only to him to confer those Titles The Ambassadours it seems knew it was the Queen's mind that they should in every thing submit to the Pope and so took that grant from him Their Publick Audience was given in great Solemnity in which the Pope declared that in token of his pardoning the Nation he had added to the Crown the Title of the Kingdom of Ireland by that Supream Power which God had given him to destroy or to build Kingdomes at his pleasure But in private discourse he complained much that the Abbey-Lands were not restored He said it was beyond his power to confirm Sacriledge and all were obliged under the pains of damnation to restore to the last farthing every thing that belonged to the Church he said likewise that he would send over a Collector to gather the Peter-Pence for they could not expect that St. Peter would open Heaven to them so long as they denied him his rights upon Earth These were heavy tidings to the Lord Mountacute Sir Anthony Brown whose Estate consisted chiefly of Abbey-Lands that was one of the Ambassadours But the Pope would endure to contradiction and repeated this every time they came to him In England The English grow backward in the Persecution Orders were sent to the Justices to look narrowly to the Preachers of Heresie and to have secret Spies in every Parish for giving them Information of all Peoples behaviour This was imputed to the sowrness of Spanish Councils and seemed to be taken from that base practice of the Roman Emperours that had their Informers or Delatores that went into all Companies and accommodated themselves to all Men's Tempers till they had drawn them into some discourses against the State and thereby ruined them People grew so averse to Cruelty that Bonner himself finding how odious he was become and observing the slackness of the other Bishops refused not to meddle any further and burnt none in five Weeks time Upon which the Queen writ to him and required him to do the Office of a good Pastor and either to reclaim the Hereticks or to proceed against them according to Law and he quickly shewed how ready he was to mend his pace upon such an admonition In the beginning of May The Queens delivery in vain lookt for the Court was in expectation of the Queen's Delivery The Envoys were named that were to carry the good News to the neighbouring Courts the tidings of it did flye over England and Te Deum was sung upon it in several Cathedrals But it proved to be a false conception and all hopes of Issue by her vanished This tended much to alienate King Philip from her and he finding it more necessary to look after his Hereditary Crowns than to